Polls conducted in Israel the day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s peace policy speech revealed that he hit a home-run as far as the home crowd was concerned.

Netanyahu’s approval rating stood at a dismal 28 percent a month ago following controversial budget debates in the cabinet. But Sunday’s speech boosted him to a comfortable (by Israeli standards) 44 percent approval rating.

Israelis from across the political spectrum who took part in a survey commissioned by Ha’aretz said they were happy with Netanyahu’s refusal to divide Jerusalem and to allow the Palestinians to flood the Jewish state with millions of so-called Arab “refugees.”

But what they were most pleased with was Netanyahu’s firm demand that a future Palestinian state be demilitarized, and that America seek a solution to the conflict based on that premise.

Those are the same parts of the speech that elicited the most outrage from the Palestinians and prompted them to declare that Netanyahu had effectively killed the peace process.