Trump’s Israel-Hamas Peace Plan Gets A Big ‘Thumbs Up’ From U.S. Voters: I&I/TIPP Poll Terry Jones
President Trump’s ongoing efforts to bring peace between Israel and the terrorist Hamas group in Gaza appeared to bear fruit last week with a deal to cease hostilities and to release remaining hostages and prisoners. But will American voters back Trump’s bold plan? The answer is a resounding yes, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.
After months of talks and arm-twisting, Trump was able to broker a tenuous deal that might serve as a pattern for future peace deals in the region.
Knowing the outline of the deal as first presented, I&I/TIPP asked voters: “Do you support or oppose the Trump peace plan for Gaza, which calls for an immediate ceasefire, hostage exchanges, and rebuilding Gaza under international supervision?”
The response was powerful: 59% said they would either support the deal “strongly” (30%) or “somewhat” (29%), while just 18% opposed the deal either “strongly” (9%) or “somewhat”. A large 23% of Americans said they were not sure.
The national online poll was taken from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, with 1.459 adults taking part. The poll has a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points.
There were differences in support when it came to political affiliations, but all of the parties — Democratic Party (46% support, 30% oppose), Republican (78% support, 9% oppose) or independent (53% support, 18% oppose) — showed either a majority or plurality of support.
That means, as presented, it is broadly accepted by all.

That question was followed by a second: “Do you agree or disagree that Hamas should be excluded from any future role in governing Gaza?”
Once again the response was positively lopsided: Overall, 58% of respondents agreed “strongly” (39%) or “somewhat” (19%), while only 14% disagreed “strongly” (6%) or even “somewhat” (8%).
Once more Democrats (47% agree, 23% disagree), Republicans (75% agree, 7% disagree), and indie voters (53% agree, 14% disagree) were broadly in tune on excluding Hamas from any future role in governing Gaza.

Finally, the big question that has been debated now for well over half a century: “Do you think the peace plan should eventually lead to the creation of a Palestinian state, or not?”
A plurality of 39% say “yes,” while 20% say “no.” But far more crucial to the debate, the largest share of the voting public — 41% — say “not sure.” That 41% of undecideds will be the political battleground for those who support and those who oppose a Palestinian state going forward.

Ideological leanings seem to influence answers. While self-described conservatives, moderates, and liberals all favor creation of a Palestinian state, in general conservatives are less enthused about the idea, while those who call themselves liberals are more enthused, with moderates as usual somewhere in the middle.
The breakdown: Conservatives (36% yes, 28% no, 36% not sure), moderates (36% yes, 16% no, 47% not sure), liberals (52% yes, 17% no, 30% not sure).
In fact, overall among all groups, as noted above, “not sure” is the most popular answer at 41%. When that’s added to the “No” answer at 20%, you get 61% of outright rejection or doubt. That’s a big hill to climb for advocates of a Palestinian state.
President Trump’s triumphant deal to make peace in the Middle East, a sparse commodity at best, has raised hopes that Israel will now be able to live within secure borders without fear of attacks from Hamas.
Among those who call themselves Palestinians, they may derive some amount of hope from Trump’s deal. If the peace isn’t broken by Hamas or any other Palestinian-linked terror group (there are several dozen; Wikipedia lists 49 so-called “Palestinian Militant Groups”), someday there might be negotiations for a state
Though denied the Nobel Peace Prize for this deal, Trump can bask in the knowledge that those around the world monitoring what goes on in the Mideast know that the U.S. president was the one who got the deal done.
That was seen almost immediately as the ultimate winner of the last week’s peace prize, Venezuelan democratic activist “Iron Lady” María Corina Machado, on Friday dedicated her prize “to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!”
Will Trump be jealous? Maybe a bit. But he also knows that Machado was nominated for the prize by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz, and probably sees it as another triumph. And it is.
But will Trump’s peace in the Mideast be durable? That’s not clear. As has been noted, shortly after the deal was struck, “One group of Gazans was captured on video chanting ‘Khaybar, Khaybar, ya Yahood, jaish Muhammad sa yaoud.’ That is, ‘Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad will return.’ “
The message: The war’s only over for now. Jihad never ends.
Meanwhile, Trump’s peace has brought kudos to what seemed an impossible situation. “President Trump understands the Middle East better than all the so-called experts,” ran the headline over Ben Shapiro’s article on the deal in The Daily Wire.
Still, there are never any guarantees of lasting peace, as many have noted.
“Israel could have achieved a complete military victory, but doing so would cause three problems that the Israeli people will not accept: the death of the remaining hostages, more military deaths, and world opprobrium at a potentially unsurvivable level,” wrote Andrea Widburg of American Thinker. “Given that, the deal is as good an offramp as Israel can get.”
Quite so. As the I&I/TIPP Poll shows, despite significant doubts and uncertainties about the possibility of a future Palestinian state, a significant majority of Americans strongly support Trump’s deal.
I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past six presidential elections.
Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.
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