Interesting figures. I wonder why in the last ten years public opinion has shifted so much from not taking to either side of the conflict, to one that strongly supports the "Israeli side". Has the public become more ignorant?
Very interesting indeed, I concur. I think it's mind boggling how inherently pro Israel everyone seems to be. And how again public opinion towards Israeli's and Palestinians and Arabs alike have altered so much. I think because of all of the "Arab" conflict that has been going on in the last lets say, ten years; it has caused the general public to not necessarily support Israel more because of legitimate, passionate, or personal reasons, but maybe because they are the "other," they are not "arab" they are not the "terrorists who attacked America," so on and so forth. So concluding, maybe the public has indeed become more and more ignorant. For if not the case, why is that diverse conglomerate of surveys so very clearly black and white.
What concerns me with this data is that in a time where America needs to step up to the metaphorical plate, American support of and positive views of Palestinians has significantly decreased. True, recent events of the last decade as well as the media have had a lot to do with the shaping of American perceptions of Arabs in general, and this reaches even this conflict, where one side is significantly stronger, in control, and much in violation of international law.
Two surveys in particular stood out to me. In 2006, 45% of those who took the survey blamed the Palestinians as the cause for the conflict, with only 15% doling blame to Israel. Also, in 2005, 48% said that Israel was "doing more to bring peace to the region," and a whopping 41% admitted that they didn't know.
What saddens me is that a common complaint among Palestinians is that the US is unbalanced, unfair, and prone to take the Israel side and heed to their requests. With strong Israeli lobbyists and American oppinion polls such as these, it makes the proximity of America actually playing its proper role seem even further away.
Although the data is somewhat dated, and many questions slanted, the overall responses suggest strongly why Israeli leaders have been able to stonewall real peace while cynically claiming to have its security under attack. The public has been conditioned to think of Jews as the endangered victims of Arab violence, while Israel's military operations are promoted as necessary responses.
This distortion of reality also causes Palestinians to resent Americans and European as they sense that self-serving Israeli propaganda sets policy and public opinion.
There appears to be many knee-jerk reactions, devoid of facts, in many of the survey answers. Yet, the low pro-Palestinian positions expose the persistence of visceral anti-Arab prejudice and fear of challenging formal Israeli policy.
The only glimmer of hope was the increasing number of responses, when asked impartially,that indicated both sides are equally at fault in delayed peace success.
Why the Holocaust should still color and favor Zionist actions in the Middle East remains an enigma.
These statistics are not surprising in that they indicate that the average U.S. citizen has either taken the Jewish lobby’s word for a particular situation or that they just don’t know what to believe. More interesting to me are the responses of the American Jews and also the “elites” and “influential Americans.” They are much less evenly divided whenever they are polled. It seems that while American Jews buy in to the positions taken by their leaders and those people who are “in the know” about issues, their voting behavior does not correspond to their views. For instance, while Jews view Arabs generally as hoping to destroy Israel, they do not generally vote for American leaders who promise to take a hard line against Arab terrorism. I wonder if American Jews only say what they have been told to say when the polls are taken but give more serious consideration to issues related to Israel when they go to the privacy of the voting booth. On the other hand, it’s possible that the day to day issues of living in the U.S. are of more concern to Jews than Israel’s well being is.
One response that stood out to me was to the question of whether or not the United States should invest more political efforts and resources into the resolving the conflict. 56% answered that the United Nations should take the lead role and another 29% saying that the United States should not get involved at all. This question was asked in August of 2006, which is around the time frame that many Americans began to question the Iraq War and whether or not to still be involved. It seems that Americans may be leaning towards less contribution and participation in the region, in general. It would be interesting to see how the sample would have responded to a question about the United States involvement in Iran’s development of nuclear capabilities.
6 comments:
Interesting figures. I wonder why in the last ten years public opinion has shifted so much from not taking to either side of the conflict, to one that strongly supports the "Israeli side". Has the public become more ignorant?
Very interesting indeed, I concur. I think it's mind boggling how inherently pro Israel everyone seems to be. And how again public opinion towards Israeli's and Palestinians and Arabs alike have altered so much. I think because of all of the "Arab" conflict that has been going on in the last lets say, ten years; it has caused the general public to not necessarily support Israel more because of legitimate, passionate, or personal reasons, but maybe because they are the "other," they are not "arab" they are not the "terrorists who attacked America," so on and so forth. So concluding, maybe the public has indeed become more and more ignorant. For if not the case, why is that diverse conglomerate of surveys so very clearly black and white.
What concerns me with this data is that in a time where America needs to step up to the metaphorical plate, American support of and positive views of Palestinians has significantly decreased. True, recent events of the last decade as well as the media have had a lot to do with the shaping of American perceptions of Arabs in general, and this reaches even this conflict, where one side is significantly stronger, in control, and much in violation of international law.
Two surveys in particular stood out to me. In 2006, 45% of those who took the survey blamed the Palestinians as the cause for the conflict, with only 15% doling blame to Israel. Also, in 2005, 48% said that Israel was "doing more to bring peace to the region," and a whopping 41% admitted that they didn't know.
What saddens me is that a common complaint among Palestinians is that the US is unbalanced, unfair, and prone to take the Israel side and heed to their requests. With strong Israeli lobbyists and American oppinion polls such as these, it makes the proximity of America actually playing its proper role seem even further away.
Although the data is somewhat dated, and many questions slanted, the overall responses suggest strongly why Israeli leaders have been able to stonewall real peace while cynically claiming to have its security under attack. The public has been conditioned to think of Jews as the endangered victims of
Arab violence, while Israel's military operations are promoted as necessary responses.
This distortion of reality also causes Palestinians to resent Americans and European as they sense that self-serving Israeli propaganda sets policy and public opinion.
There appears to be many knee-jerk reactions, devoid of facts, in many of the survey answers. Yet, the low pro-Palestinian positions expose the persistence of visceral
anti-Arab prejudice and fear of challenging formal Israeli policy.
The only glimmer of hope was the increasing number of responses, when asked impartially,that indicated both sides are equally at fault in delayed peace success.
Why the Holocaust should still color and favor Zionist actions in the Middle East remains an enigma.
These statistics are not surprising in that they indicate that the average U.S. citizen has either taken the Jewish lobby’s word for a particular situation or that they just don’t know what to believe. More interesting to me are the responses of the American Jews and also the “elites” and “influential Americans.” They are much less evenly divided whenever they are polled. It seems that while American Jews buy in to the positions taken by their leaders and those people who are “in the know” about issues, their voting behavior does not correspond to their views. For instance, while Jews view Arabs generally as hoping to destroy Israel, they do not generally vote for American leaders who promise to take a hard line against Arab terrorism. I wonder if American Jews only say what they have been told to say when the polls are taken but give more serious consideration to issues related to Israel when they go to the privacy of the voting booth. On the other hand, it’s possible that the day to day issues of living in the U.S. are of more concern to Jews than Israel’s well being is.
One response that stood out to me was to the question of whether or not the United States should invest more political efforts and resources into the resolving the conflict. 56% answered that the United Nations should take the lead role and another 29% saying that the United States should not get involved at all. This question was asked in August of 2006, which is around the time frame that many Americans began to question the Iraq War and whether or not to still be involved. It seems that Americans may be leaning towards less contribution and participation in the region, in general. It would be interesting to see how the sample would have responded to a question about the United States involvement in Iran’s development of nuclear capabilities.
-Robert Castellanos
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