More than 96 percent of the residents of Rio de Janeiro believe that it Brazil had to choose sides between Israel and the Arab states, the choice should be to support Israel, according to a public opinion poll here by Journal de Brasil, the country’s largest morning newspaper.
The poll showed that 75 percent of the respondents believed that, even if Israel may have been first to open fire in last month’s war with the Arabs, Israel was right because the war had been provoked by Egypt.
On the issue of returning Israeli-occupied areas to the vanquished Arab states, 58 percent said Israel should do so, 38 percent opposed return of the occupied areas, and the rest could not make up their minds. A total of 91 percent endorsed the Brazilian Government’s stand of neutrality as between Israel and the Arabs.
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