More Americans Back Interventions

By Kurt Holden

An April 28 poll by the Gallup organization conducted for Cable News Network and USA Today found 62 percent of respondents opposed to U.S. air strikes against Serbian targets and 30 percent in favor.

A poll designed by President Clinton's pollster, Stanley Greenburg, and sponsored by the Americans Talk Issues Foundation, shows rapid movement toward a more pro-interventionist stance, however. The results, reported in the May 11 Wall Street Journal, showed that in late February only 14 percent of Americans responded that the U.S. and the U.N. had not gone far enough to stop the killing in Bosnia. Asked the same question early in May, 45 percent of respondents said the response in Bosnia had not gone far enough. In the latter poll of more than 1,000 adults, only 8 percent said the U.S. and U.N. had gone too far.

Israelis Split Over Prime Minister

Asked who is best qualified to be their prime minister, Israeli respondents to a public opinion poll released by the Tel Aviv newspaper Yediot Ahronot on April 2 split their support evenly between Labor Party leader and incumbent Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Likud Party leader Benjamin Natanyahu, at 38 percent each. Another 24 percent felt neither was qualified, according to the Jerusalem Press Service of Washington, DC.

A more recent poll conducted by Israel's Smith Institute and announced in Ma'ariv showed a drop since the June 1992 elections of 6.5 percent in support for Israel's Labor Party and an increase of 4 percent in support for Likud. The poll, reported May 12 by the Jerusalem Press Service, indicates that, in an election held today, the left-wing Labor and Meretz parties would lose 5 to 6 seats to the right-wing Likud and Tsomet. Following is a complete breakdown of responses by Israelis to the question of how they would vote:

Likud: 31 percent

Labor: 30 percent

Tsomet: 10.5 percent

Meretz: 9 percent

Mifdal: 4.5 percent

Yehudat Hatora: 3.5 percent

Shas: 3 percent

Moledet: 2 percent

Russian parties: 1 percent

Others: 1 percent

Undecided: 3.5 percent

Israelis for Death Penalty

Israeli respondents to the poll reported in the April 2 Yediot Ahronot supported the death penalty for Palestinian "terrorists" by 67 percent, with 32 percent of Israelis opposed to such a measure.

Israelis Against 1967 Borders

A Gallup Institute poll reported on May 6 by Ma'ariv found that 59.3 percent of Israelis oppose returning to Israel's 1967 borders, even when East Jerusalem is excluded, in exchange for a comprehensive peace settlement with the Arabs. Another 26.9 percent of Israeli respondents would support such a withdrawal, and 11.1 percent were undecided.

Israelis Would Trade Some Land

A January poll by the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies found 60 percent of Israelis willing to return an unspecified amount of land for peace, up from 38 percent of Israelis who indicated willingness to trade some land for peace in 1986.

Israeli Resistance to Evacuation

Ma'ariv reported May 6 that 55 percent of Israelis support in varying degrees the use of force by Jewish settlers to resist evacuation from the West Bank. Of respondents, 17 percent said they would join settlers in "Judea and Samaria" in resisting evacuation, another 37.5 percent of Israelis sympathized with the settler's willingness to use force against any decision to evacuate them, while 39.6 percent oppose the use of force by the settlers.

Israelis Support Closure

In a poll of Israelis released by the Jerusalem Press Service on April 23, after closure of the Israeli-occupied territories from Israel and from East Jerusalem, 75 percent supported continuation of the closure, 16 percent supported lessening the closure, and only 8 percent supported ending the closure.

Palestinians Support PLO

A poll of Palestinian residents of the Israeli-occupied territories conducted by the Jerusalem Research and Publication Center for the Arabic newspaper Al Manar found that in answer to the question, "Do you support the course being led by President Yasser Arafat?" 83.2 percent said yes, 7 percent said no, and 9.8 percent had no opinion. The figures were released April 23 by the Jerusalem Press Service in Washington, DC.

Palestinians on Peace Talks

When the same Palestinian respondents were asked specifically, "Do you support the resumption of negotiations and the Palestinian delegation's participation in light of the recent Palestinian diplomatic moves?" 76.9 percent said yes, 13.5 percent said no, and 9.6 percent had no opinion.

Palestinians Grade Delegates

In answer to a third question, "Is the Palestinian delegation, which has been appointed by the PLO, carrying out its duty in the best manner and with competence?" 71 percent of the same respondents said yes, 16 percent said no, and 13 percent had no opinion.

A poll by the weekly Arabic magazine Shuruq found that 67.6 percent of Gaza Palestinian respondents supported the decision by the Palestinian leadership to return to the peace talks. The survey, based on 1,500 randomly chosen Gaza residents, was reported by Al Fajr on April 27.

Two-Thirds of Americans Certain European Holocaust Occurred

A poll released on April 19, three days before the formal opening of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, indicated that nearly two-thirds of Americans are certain that the Holocaust, the name given to the mass killings of European Jews and other groups by the Nazi German government before and during World War II, occurred. On the other hand, 22 percent of U.S. adults and 20 percent of U.S. high school students believe it possible that the Holocaust never happened.

An additional 12 percent of adult respondents and 17 percent of high school respondents to the poll, commissioned by the American Jewish Committee, said they did not know whether or not it was possible that the Holocaust never happened. To conduct the poll, the Roper Organization interviewed 992 adults from Nov. 14 to 21, and 506 high school students from Oct. 19 to Oct. 30, 1992.

Of those polled, 65 percent of adults and 63 percent of high school students said it was impossible to believe that the Holocaust never happened. The survey found that 72 percent of adults and 64 percent of high school students said it was essential or very important for all Americans to know about what was done to the Jews by the Nazis. Sixty-three percent of adults and 54 percent of high school respondents rejected the idea that the Holocaust had become irrelevant after 50 years.

Kurt Holden, a retired filmmaker, divides his time between Washington, DC and the Mideast.