Two polls
A recent telephone poll conducted by "The Israel Project" in the US among voters in the upcoming Presidential election, including people from all ages, races, economic and political groups, showed an amazing result, namely that 60% support Israel! This is a full 10% higher than the same poll last year. Of this 60%, 27% supported Israel strongly, while 31% supported the Palestinians and 8% supported neither or were undecided (the margin of error is 3.5%). Two important conclusions can be drawn from this result; first, since Jews are only 2% of the US population, support for Israel is a widespread Christian/secular issue in the US. Second, that follows from this, the support for Israel is not due to "undue" Jewish influence, but is intrinsic to the American population.
Responding to questions regarding Israel being an American ally, or whether or not Israel should trust the Palestinians, the figures were even more overwhelmingly in Israel's favor, being between 70-80%. Also, strangely the poll showed that 38% felt that the media in the USA was more pro-Israel while only 15% thought it was pro-Palestinian.
One striking result of this poll is the difference between similar polls taken in Europe, where the figures are the mirror image of those in the US. So the American public largely supports Israel, and that's why American politicians give Israel such strong support, it is not due to "Jewish influence."
However, the above results do not mean that the American public views Israel as an important issue in the election, on the contrary only 7% did so, versus much higher figures for the economy, jobs, health care, and the situation in Iraq. Even among the Jewish population only 23% viewed Israel as a top issue in the election.
In a different poll conducted by the Knesset information service among Israeli Jews to determine their attitude towards Arabs, 76% said that they thought that if a Palestinian State is founded, some or all Israeli Arabs should be "transferred" to it. Of these 24% said all Israeli Arabs should be transferred and 19% said only those in close proximity to the border of the putative Palestinian State. Only 24% were totally opposed to the transfer, which is a dramatic reversal compared to similar polls taken over the years. 90% also said that Israeli Arabs identify only with their own cause and with the Palestinians while only 1% thought that they identify with Israel. This represents a complete change around in Jewish attitudes, no doubt engendered by the results of the Lebanon and Gaza withdrawals and the rioting of Israel Arabs during the second intifada and since then.
Publicly Israeli Arabs and their elected representatives express total support for the PA or Hamas, but if asked about their attitude towards transferring to a Palestinian State, most of them want to remain in Israel, because that's what they have known, because they are freer and because they receive much higher welfare and social security payments in Israel than they would get in the PA. These poll results indicate a sharp turn of Israeli Jewish attitudes towards the right.
Responding to questions regarding Israel being an American ally, or whether or not Israel should trust the Palestinians, the figures were even more overwhelmingly in Israel's favor, being between 70-80%. Also, strangely the poll showed that 38% felt that the media in the USA was more pro-Israel while only 15% thought it was pro-Palestinian.
One striking result of this poll is the difference between similar polls taken in Europe, where the figures are the mirror image of those in the US. So the American public largely supports Israel, and that's why American politicians give Israel such strong support, it is not due to "Jewish influence."
However, the above results do not mean that the American public views Israel as an important issue in the election, on the contrary only 7% did so, versus much higher figures for the economy, jobs, health care, and the situation in Iraq. Even among the Jewish population only 23% viewed Israel as a top issue in the election.
In a different poll conducted by the Knesset information service among Israeli Jews to determine their attitude towards Arabs, 76% said that they thought that if a Palestinian State is founded, some or all Israeli Arabs should be "transferred" to it. Of these 24% said all Israeli Arabs should be transferred and 19% said only those in close proximity to the border of the putative Palestinian State. Only 24% were totally opposed to the transfer, which is a dramatic reversal compared to similar polls taken over the years. 90% also said that Israeli Arabs identify only with their own cause and with the Palestinians while only 1% thought that they identify with Israel. This represents a complete change around in Jewish attitudes, no doubt engendered by the results of the Lebanon and Gaza withdrawals and the rioting of Israel Arabs during the second intifada and since then.
Publicly Israeli Arabs and their elected representatives express total support for the PA or Hamas, but if asked about their attitude towards transferring to a Palestinian State, most of them want to remain in Israel, because that's what they have known, because they are freer and because they receive much higher welfare and social security payments in Israel than they would get in the PA. These poll results indicate a sharp turn of Israeli Jewish attitudes towards the right.
posted by Jack Cohen at 5:42 PM
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