Two-thirds of Americans surveyed believe the Palestinians should choose a moderate group of leaders to replace the Palestine Liberation Organization as their representative, the Anti-Defamation League reported in releasing the results of a new nationwide poll.
The poll showed that 55 percent of the respondents also questioned “the wisdom of the Bush administration’s efforts to bring Syria to the peace conference,” said Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director.
Americans are “skeptical of any change in Arab attitudes toward Israel,” despite the readiness of some Arab countries to come to the peace table, Foxman said.
He said the poll established that the American public sympathizes with Israel over the Arab states and with Israel over the Palestinians by overwhelming margins of 63 to 16 percent and 44 to 28 percent respectively.
Nevertheless, 63 percent of the respondents thought the Israeli government should announce it would consider trading land for peace.
The poll was conducted among 600 American voters between Aug. 14 and 18 by the Boston-based firm of Marttila & Kiley.
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.
