Hawaiian Democrats Reveal Strong Support for Palestinian Statehood

By Alice and Yasumasa Kuroda

A systematic random sample of 389 registered voters who intended to take a Democratic ballot in the Ist Congressional District in Hawaii was interviewed by telephone from August 17 through 25, 1988. Two questions were added by Minerva Research to ascertain the extent to which some Jesse Jackson Democratic positions were advocated by the Honolulu voters. The sampling error is estimated to be 5 percent in either direction at a standard 95 percent confidence level.

The two items consisted of one question on domestic and one on foreign policy issues. The respondents were asked either to agree or disagree with the following statement:

"We spend too much money on the military and not enough on social programs for people here in Hawaii." Agree (51 percent), Disagree (32 percent), Don't Know (17 percent)
"There will be no peace in the Middle East until the Palestinians have a state of their own. "Agree (51 percent), Disagree (23 percent), Don't Know (26 percent).

Fifty-one percent of the respondents agreed with the two items. Thirty two percent of them disagreed with the first item, while 23 percent disagreed with the Middle East peace item. Seventeen percent and 26 percent respectively gave no definite answers for the two items. It is understandable that a larger segment of the public is either uninformed or unconcerned with the foreign policy issue relative to the domestic issue, particularly since the state of Hawaii's second largest industry is defense.

If we eliminate "Don't Knows" and "Not Ascertainables" from the calculations, 61 percent and 68 percent of the respondents, respectively, agreed with the two items: 1. Agree (61 percent), Disagree (39 percent); 2. Agree (68 percent), Disagree (32 percent). Clearly, a solid majority of them support these two propositions, as does the public on the mainland.

Demographic Variables Made No Difference

Efforts were made to see if demographic variables show any significant relationship to either of the items. The results were negative. Demographic backgrounds of the respondents such as ethnicity, age, gender and the place where they grew up had little impact on their attitude toward the two items.

What do these findings mean?

First, about one-half of the voters say we spend too much money on the military and not enough on social programs for people in Hawaii.

Second, about one-half of the voters agree that a Palestinian state is a necessary condition for peace in the Middle East.

Third, these two propositions were items the Jackson Democrats in Hawaii attempted to place in the Democratic Party platform. Although Jackson Democrats are often labeled liberal, these two views are shared by a majority of the Democratic voters in the 1st Congressional District. The same Middle East peace question asked in surveys conducted by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan and Gallup at the national level yielded comparable results of 54 percent (1985) and 46 percent (1982), agreeing with the Hawaii sample.

Fourth, while the first statement is supported in general by all Democratic candidates, the second statement is not, indicating either they are uninformed concerning the public view, they are anti-Palestinian or pro-Zionist, or they are afraid to express views contrary to those advanced by the Israeli lobby.

Fifth, about one-third of the voters disagreed with the social program issue, while only 23 percent of them disagreed on the Middle East issue.

Sixth, it appears that Jesse Jackson's attempts to push these two items have sound majority support from Hawaii's Democratic voters. On these two issues, Jackson does not represent the views of a narrow group of people, but a rather large rainbow of colors in Hawaii. There appears to be a need for the leadership in Hawaii to heed the majority voter view at large, especially with respect to the Middle East peace issue, which the public suggests should move from the current lopsided pro-Israel policy to a balanced policy of equally respecting the legitimate rights of the indigenous Palestinians (Christians and Muslims), while supporting the right of Israel to exist.

Alice Kuroda is president of Minerva Research Inc. of Honolulu and a former member of the University of Hawaii faculty. Yasumassa Kuroda is a professor of political science at the University of Hawaii and teaches courses on the Middle East and Japan.