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Jewish World Review /Sept. 30, 1999 /20 Tishrei, 5760
WHAT DO AMERICAN JEWS think about Israel's negotiations
with the Palestinians? A late September survey of 800 self-identified Jewish
voters from around the United States, carried out by John McLaughlin and
Associates, produced interesting results with important implications.
By an almost 3-to-1 margin (60 to 22 percent, with an accuracy of ± 3.5% at
a 95% confidence interval), American Jews say that Israel should not sign a
treaty with the Palestinians if this requires an independent Palestinian
state with Jerusalem as its capital. Then, given a choice - whether the Arab
world sincerely accepts Israel's right to exist, or whether it seeks the
eventual destruction of Israel - the respondents by a similar 3-to-1 margin
(60 to 19%) find that the Arabs still want to eliminate Israel. After a
quarter-century of Israel turning land over to the Arabs, this is a very
significant number, one resulting from a deep-seated Arab reluctance to
accept Israel's permanence.
By an overwhelming 6-to-1 margin (76 to 13%), American Jews say that
President Clinton's promise of $900 million in aid to the Palestinian
Authority over five years should be paid only if the PA removes all
antisemitic and anti-Israel statements from its school books. An even larger
8-to-1 margin (78 to 10%) wants to hold back on the money until Yasser
Arafat fulfills his Oslo obligations to outlaw and disarm terrorist groups
and to extradite terrorists to Israel.
In contrast to these decisive stands, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem has
less backing. Asked whether they agree with the Congressional legislation to
move the embassy (in recognition of Israel's claim that Jerusalem is its
capital) or with President Clinton's opposition to the legislation (on the
grounds that the city's status should be negotiated between Israel and the
Palestinians), the respondents by a nearly 2-to-1 margin (57 to 30%) agree
with Congress. The sample also strongly endorses the prime ministry of Ehud
Barak: asked if he is headed in the right direction or is off track, it
approved of him by an 8-to-1 margin (63 to 8%).
Finally, the poll finds that American Jews are not much focused on Israel.
In a question asking about the issues that most concern them, an
overwhelming 87% pointed to domestic issues and only 5% to foreign policy
ones.
This profusion of opinions has four major implications. First, it confirms
polling done by the American Jewish Committee since 1993 that points to a
toughening of attitudes on the question of the Palestinians. As Yale Zussman
concluded in his Middle East Quarterly study of six years of AJC polling,
"American Jewry is increasingly wary of a negotiation process that it
worries may be a trap for Israel." Second, there is a seeming contradiction
between the overwhelming support for Barak himself and for positions that he
does not endorse (such as withholding money to the PA). This suggests that
while American Jews have high regard for the Israeli prime minister, they
are generally not aware of the steps he is taking quite contrary to their
own views - a conclusion supported by the fact that only one third of them
say they are well-informed about Israel.
Third, these results raise questions about an Israel Policy Forum poll
commissioned in July 1999 that found American Jews "supporting] the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process" by a 11-to-1 margin (88 to 8%).
Well, yes, they do strongly support in principle the idea of Israel finding
a way to end Palestinian hostilities against it, but our survey shows they
also have strong ideas about how this should be done - and these ideas are
much more skeptical than those promoted by the current Israeli leadership.
Fourth, American Jews appear to be less engaged with Israel. Yes, a
committed minority continues to follow the news intensely, travel to Israel,
lobby Congress, and give money, but growing numbers of American Jews have
other things on their minds.
A view of US Jews
By Daniel Pipes
This helps explain the not very high level of interest about Israel
and the Middle East, with 34% saying they read a "great deal" on these
subjects and 58% saying "only somewhat" about them.
For Israel, this has the utmost importance, given the vital role American
Jews have had in the formulation of US policy toward the Middle East. This
decline in interest has particular importance at a time when - as shown by
the recent Burger King, Sprint, and Disney episodes - Arab and Moslem groups
in the United States are finding their
JWR contributor Daniel Pipes, a Jerusalem Post columnist, is director of the Middle East Forum and the author of three
books on Syria, most recently Syria Beyond the Peace Process. Let him know what you think by clicking here.
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