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Most Israelis differ with Olmert on Palestinians

More than half of all Israelis disagree with their government's decision to boycott the Palestinians' new governing alliance, which doesn't explicitly recognize the Jewish state's right to exist, a poll showed yesterday.

Thirty-nine percent of the 517 people surveyed by the Dahaf Research Institute said Israel should talk with the new Palestinian government, made up of the militant Islamic Hamas and the more moderate Fatah.

An additional 17 percent said their government should engage only Fatah Cabinet ministers.

Forty percent said there should be no contact.

The poll had a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.

Past polls have also shown the broader Israeli public to be more flexible than its government on issues related to peacemaking.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said peace talks with the Palestinian coalition government would be impossible as long as it refused to renounce violence and recognize Israel. He said there would not be any contact with any member of the new Palestinian government, including the new finance and foreign ministers, who are known as moderates.

"We can't have contact with members of a government that justifies resistance, or, in other words, terror," Olmert told his Cabinet.

The Cabinet endorsed the prime minister's position and urged the West to maintain harsh economic sanctions imposed last year.
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