Poll: U.S. Jews Pessimistic About Prospects for Peace

A majority of American Jews support the Israeli government’s handling of peace negotiations with the Arabs, according to the latest survey of attitudes on the Israeli-Arab peace process.

The survey, commissioned by the American Jewish Committee, also found that a majority of American Jews believe that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is “somewhat” or “strongly” opposed to peace with Israel.

The survey is the latest in a wave of such opinion polls — many of which are seen as an effort to advance a particular political objective.

But the AJCommittee survey is widely seen as one of the most useful because it is conducted annually and can track changing attitudes.

“Our survey has come out at a timely point in the heated debate among pollsters,” said David Singer, director of research at the AJCommittee. “We provide some clarification.”

And this year’s results are telling.

“In 1993 we saw in our surveys widespread euphoria” for the Oslo peace process and five years later, “we find that there has been serious erosion in that euphoria,” said David Harris, executive director of the AJCommittee.

The findings of the survey reflect widespread pessimism about the Israeli- Palestinian peace process in particular, which has virtually ground to a halt.

It comes as the Clinton administration is trying to determine whether to force the two sides to advance the process by coming out publicly with a plan that would commit Israel to a further withdrawal from the West Bank and commit the Palestinians to take stronger actions to ensure Israeli security.

Many of the survey’s questions touched on these issues. Among the findings:

94 percent of American Jews say that the Palestinian Authority is not doing enough to control terrorist activity, up from approximately 82 percent in 1996. The question was not asked in 1997;

Over two-thirds — 69 percent — said they favored U.S. pressure on Arafat, while 52 percent oppose pressure on Netanyahu; 45 percent believe the United States should pressure Netanyahu;

42 percent favor — and 49 percent oppose — the establishment of a Palestinian state. In 1996, 45 percent favored such a state, compared to 57 percent in 1993;

Netanyahu continues to garner favorable ratings from American Jews, according to the survey;

56 percent of American Jews support Netanyahu’s handling of the peace process, which is down from last year, but only by 5 percent;

66 percent say they have a “somewhat favorable” or “very favorable” impression of the prime minister; and

57 percent agree — and 36 percent disagree — that American Jews should support the policies of the duly elected government of Israel.

Not unexpectedly, the survey faced some criticism from both the right and the left.

Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America and an outspoken critic of the Oslo peace process, said he is disappointed in the “biased” and “vague” language of some of the AJCommittee’s questions. He suggested that specifying support for Israel trading land for peace instead of just the peace process would have garnered different results.

Still, pointing to the finding that 68 percent of American Jews believe that “the goal of the Arabs is not the return of the occupied territories but rather the destruction of Israel,” Klein said the poll reflects what he has long believed: “Most American Jews are skeptical about Arab intention to having a real peace with Israel.”

For his part, Jonathan Jacoby, president of the Israel Policy Forum, which strongly supported the peace policies of the former Labor government, said the wording of the questions, particularly those related to U.S. pressure on the parties, does not shed light on “how Americans feel about an even-handed approach toward mediating the conflict, because the questions only referred to pressuring one side or the other.”

A recent poll commissioned by his group found that 84 percent of American Jews believed the Clinton administration should pressure both Netanyahu and Arafat to work harder for peace.

But, Jacoby added, “the poll is important because it points to the troubling increase in the hopelessness American Jews feel about the situation in Israel.”