Public Opinion Building Fire For US Mid-East Peace Initiative

By Fouad Moughrabi

Current polls reveal an astonishing and growing gap between American public perceptions of the US role in Middle East peace and the actions and statements of both the executive branch and Congress. The majority of Americans who favor the recent move by the US government to establish direct contact with the Palestine Liberation Organization has grown to nearly two-thirds of the public, reflecting a constant in American political culture that to make peace you talk to your opponents. In addition, Americans favor, by a 2-1 margin, the creation of an independent state for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. These are the results of two nationwide polls conducted in December 1988 and in January 1989.

Sixty four percent of the 1,533 adults surveyed by a CBS News New York Times poll between Jan. 12-15, 1989, favor contacts between the United States government and the PLO. Only 23 percent oppose such contacts. The highest approval rate comes from respondents who consider themselves independents (67 percent), while 66 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of Democrats favor direct talks between the two parties.

A survey in mid-December by Hotline/KRC of Washington, DC, reveals that 59 percent of the American public support direct talks between the US government and the PLO. This indicates support for direct talks increased 5 percent from mid-December to mid-January.

Even more significant, however, is the finding by Hotline that 46 percent of the public favor the creation of an independent Palestinian state and only 22 percent oppose it. These figures have not changed since Gallup discovered in October 1982 that a 2-1 margin majority (46 percent to 23 percent) of the public endorsed an independent state for the Palestinians.

The January CBS News New York Times poll also asked respondents if they think "Yasser Arafat and the PLO want peace in the Middle East enough to make real concessions to the government of Israel in order to get it." Only 24 percent agreed, 56 percent disagreed, and 20 percent did not know. This means that only a quarter of the public think that the PLO is serious enough about wanting peace in the region. Respondents expressed similar skepticism about the government of Israel. Roughly the same percentage think that the government of Israel wants peace enough to make real concessions to Yasser Arafat and the PLO. The majority of respondents (52 percent) do not think that Israel is serious enough about wanting peace to make real concessions for it.

Majority Has Favored US-PLO Talks for Years

What do these figures tell us? For several years, public opinion polls have revealed that a majority of Americans favors direct talks between the US government and the PLO. This finding is viewed as extraordinary Oven the negative images of the PLO emanating in the media and from both houses of Congress. Talking to one's opponent, however, has been a constant value in American political culture. The fact that the public widely endorses the decision of the administration to talk to the PLO therefore comes as no surprise.

Similarly, ever since the summer of 1982, a majority of the American public have favored the creation of an independent state for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. By now, this is also another constant value in American perceptions of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. A majority of the public and an even larger majority of opinion leaders (the university educated and the more affluent) do not feel that their support for Palestinian statehood is necessarily either anti-Israel or a threat to Israel's security.

By now it has become clear that there is an increasing sympathy factor for the Palestinians among many Americans. Usually, higher percentages express sympathy for "Palestinians" versus Israel than for "Arabs" versus Israel. This sympathy derives from the perception that the Palestinians do have a legitimate grievance, that they have suffered homelessness and exile, and that Israeli policies are thwarting their national aspirations and causing them untold suffering.

A closer look at the figures reveals that more independents (51 percent) than either Democrats (49 percent) or Republicans (41 percent) favor creation of an independent Palestinian state. Furthermore, significantly more men (54 percent) than women (39 percent) favor Palestinian statehood. These figures are impressive given the fact that both major parties have adopted platforms that rule out Palestinian statehood. Nonetheless, support for an independent Palestinian state is in fact similar to support for direct talks between the US and the PLO.

What is striking about these figures is the relatively high number of "don't knows." This quite simply means that not enough accurate and up-to-date information about a Palestinian state is reaching the US public. This is all the more glaring when one considers the fact that significantly higher numbers of men than women support statehood. Generally speaking, surveys show women to be more supportive of peaceful resolution of conflicts and more capable of empathy toward the underdog than men. The exception in this case of women and Palestinian statehood indicates a dearth of information concerning what a Palestinian state means to the Palestinian people.

The majority of Americans who favor the recent move by the US government to establish direct contact with the Palestine Liberation Organization has grown to nearly two thirds of the public, reflecting a constant in American political culture that to make peace you talk to your opponents.

Clearly, the notion of a Palestinian state must be moved from the level of a political abstraction to that of a human necessity for a people who are homeless, for refugees who are in need of being re-integrated in society with dignity, and for people under an oppressive foreign occupation who are concerned that their children enjoy a free and better future.

The revelation of the CBS News New York Times poll that Americans credit neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis with willingness to make real concessions for peace should concern both parties to the conflict. Palestinians may view the fact that they are now put on the same level as Israelis as a significant advance over the previous popular image as bloodthirsty terrorists. The fact is, however, that the Palestinians have committed themselves to a peaceful settlement and made some major concessions, while the present Israeli government continues a policy of intransigence and rejection. It has also escalated its repression in the occupied territories, leading to more killing and maiming and to harsher sentences imposed on teen-agers accused of throwing rocks.

The PLO should insist that the Palestinian case be better heard in the United States. Furthermore, Americans should insist that the major media resume their coverage of the daily confrontations in the Israeli-occupied territories between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian youths. A resumption of accurate information about the conflict and about the positions of the various parties is absolutely necessary if American public opinion is to play the constructive role in the peace process thrust upon it by the conspicuous failure of both Congress and the mainstream media.

Fouad Moughrabi, a professor of political science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, is co-author of Public Opinion and the Palestinian Question.