Strategic Assessment

Israeli public opinion continued to shift to the right in 2002, as the terror campaign waged by Palestinians since September 2000 escalated. Israelis were gloomier than ever about the prospects for peace and about the state of the nation’s security. While there was general support for unilateral separation from the Palestinians, that support diminished considerably when the extent of the withdrawal and its impact on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza was delineated. The perceived threat to security was associated with increased support for transfer of Arabs from the territories captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, and even for transfer of Arab-Israelis.