A majority of American Jews oppose linking U.S. humanitarian aid for Israeli immigrants from the former Soviet Union to Israel’s settlement policy in the administered territories.
But an even larger number believe the United States has already made that linkage.
Those were among the findings of a national survey commissioned by Americans for a Safe Israel and released here Tuesday.
The survey also found a 51 percent majority agreeing that “Israel should not give up any of the disputed territories,” while 36 percent disagreed.
But roughly half of those supporting territorial compromise said they would change their position “if it meant the creation of an independent Palestinian state.”
The poll of 511 adult Jews, selected at random by a market research firm from a list of synagogue members and donors to Jewish causes, was commissioned by AFSI in response to a poll taken last fall of federation leaders across North America.
That survey, released in November on the eve of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s visit to the United States, was commissioned by the Wilstein Institute of Jewish Policy Studies in Los Angeles.
It showed a majority of the federation leadership taking a dovish line on the territories, contrary to that of the Shamir government and AFSI.
Those findings appeared to be at odds with a broader survey of American Jews conducted last summer by the American Jewish Committee. It found 67 percent believing Israel should hold onto the West Bank, with only 11 percent opposing.
“We wanted to know if the Wilstein poll represented a shift in attitudes,” AFSI Chairman Herbert Zweibon said, explaining his group’s motives for commissioning a new survey.
He said his group’s findings confirm the AJCommittee poll, indicating that the American Jewish grass roots is more hawkish than its leadership.
“I call it the reverse cream process,” said Zweibon, who says Israel should annex the disputed territories. “The bad comes to the top, and what stays at the bottom is good common sense.”
The AFSI survey also found that by a margin of 70 to 20 percent, American Jews believe the Bush administration is not an honest broker in the Arab-Israeli peace negotiations.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
