Despite Blockade and Rising Unemployment, Poll Shows Palestinians Choose Moderation

By Ella Bancroft

The first poll of public opinion since the Jan. 20 Palestinian elections and the suicide bombings in Israel showed little change in attitudes of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank (now officially renamed Southern and Northern Palestine by the Palestinian National Authority). The poll was taken between March 29 and 31 by the USAID- funded Center for Palestine Research and Studies (CPRS) in Nablus, and released in the U.S. by the International Republican Institute.

It showed that Palestinians oppose armed attacks against Israeli civilians by better than three to one, with 70 percent opposed and 21 percent in favor of such attacks. These figures have not changed significantly since September 1995. Similarly, by almost two to one (59 vs. 32 percent), the Palestinian public supports PNA efforts to prevent further attacks, even though 46 percent of Palestinians are very worried that the PNA efforts could lead to internal Palestinian conflict.

Israeli closures of West Bank and Gaza towns and villages are having a devastating effect on the Palestinian economy. The same poll recorded unemployment in both areas has nearly doubled since July 1995, reaching 44 percent in the West Bank and 60 percent in Gaza.

ADL Director Says One in Five Americans Harbor Anti-Semitic Views

Americans responded in various ways to charges by actor Marlon Brando that “Hollywood is run by Jews, it is owned by Jews” who have been victimized themselves and therefore “should have greater sensitivity about...people who are suffering.”

The Washington Post printed on April 14 a compilation of related remarks by other show business figures along with a comment by B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman that one in five Americans harbor anti-Semitic views. The criteria, Foxman told the Post, were remarks to ADL-funded pollsters that Jews are “too influential,” “too powerful,” or “want to control everything.”

Foxman said that since celebrities are role models for much of the American public, they should be held to some standards of responsibility. “I can’t believe they don’t know what they are saying,” he told the Post. “Using anti-Semitic language is anti-Semitic. Are they going around trying to hurt the Jews? No. Do they have the disease? Yes.”

In the past ADL, which would have to go out of business if there were no more anti-Semitism, has made little or no distinction between criticisms of Israel or Israeli policies and remarks like those Foxman cited for the Post. However, in articles for the Jewish weekly newspapers which appear in various parts of the United States, most leaders of organized Jewry agree that the greatest threat to Judaism in America is not anti-Semitism but assimilation. Among American Jews as a whole, more than 50 percent marry non-Jews, and the great majority of children born to such mixed marriages are not raised as Jews.

The result is that when America’s population was estimated at 180 million, some 6 million were Jewish. Now, of some 260 million Americans, only 5.5 million are Jewish, and there is nothing in the demographic picture indicating that that percentage will not continue to decline.

American Jewish Committee Poll Finds Little Anti-Semitism in Russia

There was a time when “six million Jews 4" allegedly living in the former Soviet Union were going to be Israel’s secret weapon in defying Middle East demographic realities. But since the Soviet Union imploded in 1989, only about 900,000 immigrants from its territories have showed up in Israel, and between 20 and 40 percent of these new immigrants are not actually Jews by Israeli definition.

What happened? Well, a lot went to the United States instead of Israel, and perhaps another hundred thousand emigrated to Germany. But now, it seems, many have just stayed home, where assimilation also is eroding the total number of Jews. One possible reason is revealed by a poll carried out for the American Jewish Committee last January and February by ROMIR, a Moscow public opinion and market research company. It revealed that Russians really aren’t so anti-Semitic after all.

The poll showed that a majority of Russians are pessimistic about their country’s problems but, contrary to Western stereotypes of the Russians, they don’t necessarily blame the Jews.

Asked about Jewish influence in Russian society, 14 percent of Russian respondents said Jews have “too much influence,” 29 percent said they have “the right amount,” 21 percent said Jews have “too little influence,” and 37 percent said they didn’t know. Asked whether they would like to have Jews as neighbors, 17 percent said no, 67 percent said it would make no difference, and 13 percent answered affirmatively.

Turning matters around, pollsters asked whether respondents would vote for a candidate who was openly anti-Semitic. Seventy-six said they would not, and only 5 percent said they would.

As for the persistent criticism of Israel in Soviet news coverage during the years of communist domination, the residual effects seem nonexistent. Sixty-seven percent of respondents said they had a favorable view of Israel, while only 15 percent expressed an unfavorable view. That’s at least as favorable to Israel as public opinion in the United States, which has been exposed to pro-Israel reporting in the mainstream media for more than two generations.

Only when pollsters put sentiments toward Jews on purely religious grounds, did Russian opinions turn ambiguous. About 10 percent of respondents agreed with the statement, “Now as in the past Jews must answer for killing Christ.” Fifty-nine percent disagreed, and 31 percent would not give a definite answer.

Considering the fact that 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Palestinian Arabs, who presumably have reservations of their own about the Jewish majority in their country, and that ADL’s director says one in five Americans is anti-Semitic, perhaps it’s no wonder that most of the estimated 1.5 million Jews still living within the borders of the former Soviet Union seem content to stay put.

India Poll Shows Movement From Congress Party to BJP

An opinion poll published by the Times of India on April 27, the first day of India’s month-long election process, shows the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pulling ahead of the ruling Congress party. Responses suggested that 52 percent of Indians want a new central government and only 34 percent want the current Congress government to stay in office.

Peres Leads Netanyahu by Only Four Percent

A poll taken in Israel immediately after the April 27 agreement reached between incumbant Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia to end Israel’s 16-day military assault on Lebanon showed Peres had only a four percentage point lead over his Likud party rival, Benyamin Netanyahu. Support for Peres stood at 49 percent and for Netanyahu at 45 percent, with a 4 percent margin for error.