U.S. Jews Strongly Support Israel-Arab Peace

By Ella Bancroft

A year after the Oslo agreement and the Sept. 13, 1993 Yasser Arafat-Yitzhak Rabin handshake, American Jewish support for the Israeli government's "handling of the peace negotiation with the Arabs" had dropped from an initial 84 percent to a still very high 77 percent, according to an American Jewish Committee survey in mid-August, 1994. In the same poll, however, 53 percent of American Jews questioned agreed with the statement that the Palestine Liberation Organization "is determined to destroy Israel."

Separate poll results released last May by the Israel Policy Forum, representing Israel's governing Labor Party, indicated that 88 percent of 500 randomly selected American Jews supported the general concept of peace negotiations and only 5 percent had strong or moderate objections. The slight drop in American Jewish support may reflect the increasing activity of Likud-related American Jewish organizations such as the Zionist Organization of America and Americans for a Safe Israel, which have departed from the policy of supporting any elected government of Israel generally pursued by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, B'nai B'rith and most other components of the 50-member Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Not surprisingly, support for the Israeli government's approach to the peace negotiations is not so high among non-Jewish Americans. In a poll published in September by the same pro-Labor Israel Policy Forum of 1,000 Americans, at least 98 percent of them non-Jewish, 57 percent said they were impressed and 22 percent said they were not impressed by the Israeli government's peace policies. Of these respondents, 44 percent wanted the U.S. government to support the Arab-Israeli peace process, and 15 percent did not.

Jordanians Support Washington Declaration

A poll conducted between Aug. 18 and 20 of 1,172 "randomly selected people from all over the Kingdom" by the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan showed more than 80 percent support for the Washington Declaration ending the state of belligerency between Israel and Jordan signed July 25 at the White House by King Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin.

The poll of men and women over the age of 19 showed 80.2 percent supported it, 14.1 percent said they opposed it, and 5.7 percent said they were unsure. Poll organizers cited a 5 percent margin of error in the survey and, in an unusual caution, suggested that 5 percent of those questioned who refused to answer the question actually opposed the Jordan-Israel peace moves. The polling organization suggested that support for the declaration could therefore be considered at "an absolute level" of 72 percent.

In the same poll, 82.2 percent believed that Jordan's economy would benefit from peace with Israel and 69 percent believed the Kingdom would be able to secure its territorial and water rights and achieve its security objectives in negotiations with Israel. This, the polling organization said, suggested that opposition to the agreement stemmed not from fear that it would hurt Jordan so much as opposition on ideological and religious grounds.

Palestinian Polls Support Elections and Press Freedom

The Center for Palestine Research and Studies in Nablus has inaugurated detailed monthly polls of Palestinian public opinion throughout the presently and formerly occupied territories. A three-day poll of 1,562 respondents during the second week of August, the Center's 11th such poll and the fourth conducted on a monthly basis, was detailed at length in the Sept. 2 issue of the Jerusalem Times.

The results, the newspaper said, "indicate widespread opposition, which cut across party lines, to the closure of two Palestinian newspapers by President Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian National Authority and strong support for freedom of the press without restrictions. A majority of respondents feared the recent Jordanian-Israeli agreement would have a negative effect on Jordanian-Palestinian relations, and would hinder the return of Jerusalem to Palestinian sovereignty. Seventy-three percent preferred elections as the best means to select representatives, an increase of 5 percent over the average of previous polls. Fifty-three percent evaluated the Palestinian leadership positively. Support for Fatah also decreased slightly this month."

Asked about the best way to choose members of the "Palestinian Council" of the Palestinian interim self-rule authority, 78.8 percent of respondents called for political elections. Other choices were appointment by the PLO leadership, 11.2 percent; appointment by political groups on a quota basis, 7 percent; and other means, 3 percent.

Asked if they would participate in such elections, 65.1 percent said yes, 19.6 percent said no, and 15.3 percent were not sure.

Asked to name the faction whose candidates they would vote for in such elections, respondents chose: Fatah, 39 percent;

Hamas, 13.9 percent; nationalist independents, 8.3 percent; Islamic independents, 4.3 percent; Islamic Jihad, 3 percent; PFLP, 2.3 percent; FIDA, 2.3 percent; DFLP, 2 percent; PPP, 1.7 percent; other, 4.5 percent; none of the above, 14.7 percent.

Students, the largest group in Palestinian society to have recent experience with elections, gave 43.5 percent support to a coalition of Fatah, FIDA and PPP, compared to 37.7 percent support to a coalition of religious and secular opposition groups consisting of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP and DFLP.

In the same vein, 53.1 percent of respondents to the overall poll evaluated the Palestinian leadership positively, 36.4 percent evaluated it negatively and 10.5 percent had no opinion.

Asked with whom religious sovereignty in Jerusalem, including supervision of Islamic religious places, should reside, the Palestinian respondents chose Palestinian, 67.5 percent; joint Arab-Islamic, 21.8 percent; joint Palestinian-Jordanian, 7.6 percent; Jordanian, 0.8 percent; and other, 2.3 percent.

Asked about support for a newly appointed municipal council in Gaza and a municipal committee in Nablus, 21.1 percent said they supported these bodies, 44.6 percent said they supported them as a temporary measure in preparation for elections, 23.9 percent opposed them, and 10.4 percent had no opinion.

Asked about the PNA's ban on An Nahar and Akhbar al-Balad newspapers (which subsequently has been lifted), 65.9 percent opposed the ban, 15.7 percent supported the ban, and 18.9 percent had no opinion.

Opinion was equally supportive of freedom of the press in the abstract. Respondents supported freedom of the Palestinian and non-Palestinian press unconditionally by 55.2 percent; freedom for the Palestinian press that supports the official line and that of the opposition, 25.4 percent; freedom for the Palestinian press that supports only the official national line, 12.7 percent; and no opinion, 6.7 percent.

Overall, the results are good news for supporters of Palestinian democracy and bad news for both religious and secular radicals. They also contain a clear warning to Yasser Arafat's Fatah and the present leadership of the Palestinian National Authority, however, that the popular support they presently enjoy is conditioned on steady movement toward free elections and unconditional freedom of expression.

Ella Bancroft is a free-lance political writer based in Washington DC.