www.netanyahu.org/71inusoppals.html

Elli Wohlgelernter Feb. 18, 2003

Seventy-one percent of Americans believe that the Palestinians should not be given a state, since they have not fulfilled President George W. Bush's conditions for creating a state, which he outlined in his speech of June 24.

These were the findings of a poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by John McLaughlin and Associates and sponsored by the Zionist Organization of America.

Bush's conditions include "fighting terrorism, stopping the promotion of hatred in its media, ending the encouragement of murder in its schools, becoming a democracy, and respecting human rights."

Approximately 13% believe the Palestinians have fulfilled these conditions and should be given a state.

The respondents were 36% Republicans, 37% Democrats, and 21% independents; 53% Protestants, 28% Catholics, and 2% Jews; 76% Caucasians, 11% African-Americans, and 10% Hispanics. The survey also found that:

By a margin of 77% to 12%, Americans say "the United States should stop giving the Palestinian Arabs $150 million" in aid each year. 61% believe "the goal of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority is the eventual destruction of Israel," while 19% say the goal is "to have a small state living in peace alongside Israel." 51% say a Palestinian state will be a terrorist state, compared with 25% who believe it will be a civilized democracy.

73% want the US government to demand that the PA "turn over all Palestinian Arabs accused of killing or wounding American citizens," while 16% say the US should not make that demand.

64% believe world leaders should refuse to meet with Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, who claimed that the Nazis did not murder 6 million Jews, while 20% say world leaders should meet with him.

According to Steven M. Cohen, a sociology professor at the Hebrew University and a professional pollster, "Recent surveys show Americans moving toward 'a plague on both their houses.' They have become more disenchanted with both Arabs and Israelis, and this may be picking up on one half of that tendency."

Cohen said the survey didn't appear to also reflect American feelings toward anti-Israel positions, as it did with anti-Palestinian positions.

"To get a full picture of American public opinion, we need to measure responses to questions that are pro-Palestinian/anti-Palestinian, pro-Israel/anti-Israel, all at the same time," he said.

Mort Klein, national president of ZOA, said the questions weren't about Israel but about a Palestinian state.

"Here you have a question: 'Do you think the Palestinians fulfilled Bush's requirement?' It has nothing to do with Israel. So this question is as fair as you can get. It also sends a message to politicians like [Connecticut Senator] Joe Leiberman, who says in speech after speech that most Americans support a Palestinian state. This shows that most Americans are overwhelmingly against it."

Klein said the survey reflects a growing American awareness of the threat of Islamic terrorism. "They do not want to create yet another state that will be a mini-Iraq promoting hatred and murder," he said. "They understand that Islamic terrorism threatens not only Israel, but also America and the world."

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