LGF has the scoop on the latest Palestinian opinion poll, which says, among other things, that nearly 60% of Palestinians would want to continue the armed intifada even after being granted a state, and that almost two-thirds don’t think that the 9-11 pilots were terrorists:
Fifty-nine percent of Palestinians believe that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad should continue their armed struggle against Israel even if Israel leaves all of the West Bank and Gaza, including East Jerusalem, and a Palestinian state is created, a new survey shows.
Similarly, 80 percent of Palestinians say that, under those circumstances, the Palestinians should not give up the “right of return.”
The poll of Palestinians, Israeli Jews, and Israeli Arabs was released in Washington on Wednesday by Itamar Marcus, founder of Palestinian Media Watch and written by pollster Frank Luntz. It was conducted by two polling firms, the Public Opinion Research of Israel and The Palestinian Center for Public Opinion.
The poll also examined Israeli and Palestinian attitudes towards the US and towards terrorism.
Nintey-six percent of Israeli Jews say the people who piloted the planes on September 11 were terrorists, while 37 percent of Palestinians share that view.
Slightly more than one in four – 26 percent – of Palestinians believe Israelis planned the 9-11 attacks.
Forty-two percent of Palestinians and 61 percent of Israeli-Arabs stated that they support the people who are attacking Americans in Iraq. Zero percent of Israeli Jews said they did.
The next time someone starts ranting about how the Palestinians would be peaceful if only they had a state, I suggest they consult the opinion polls.
In your own words Sari – Duh Alert!
Yep, yep, you’re right. Nothing we don’t already know.
…although if you’d taken a poll a century ago in Canada asking if women were people, you’d’ve lost faith in our population too. If you’d taken a poll among Liberal candidates in 1993 asking what they’d do with Free Trade or the GST, you might expect us to have gone back to protectionism and manufacturing tax.
If someone could explain how the Israeli government changing seeds for “apartheid” accusations into “customs and immigration” would be a bad thing…
No comment unless the survey questions are provided. And Itamar Marcus…need I say more?
Hanthalah,
It seems the survey was conducted by the Public Opinion Research of Israel — you can see the questionnaire itself on pdf at: http://www.cnsnews.com/pdf/2003/pmw.pdf
Some other interesting responses from the survey:
13. If the Palestinians were to stop the terrorist attacks and give up the right of return, should Israel withdraw from all the territories, including East Jerusalem,
and grant them statehood?
The majority (57%) of Israeli Jews said no.
14. [If Israel were to leave all the territories, including East Jerusalem, and grant statehood to the Palestinians, should Palestinians give up the right of return?]
*Note that the wording of this question and the next one are in brackets; Im assuming this means that what we are given is a paraphrase of the question.
The majority of Israeli Arabs [65%] and Palestinians [80%] said no
15. [And if Israel were to leave all territories, including East Jerusalem, and grant statehood to the Palestinians, should Hamas and Islamic Jihad give up their armed struggle against Israel?]
The majority of israeli Arabs [83%] said yes; the majority of Palestinians[59%] said no
18. Democracy is the best form of government.
The majorities of all three groups said strongly agree
The most interesting responses are those given by the Israeli Arabs, which generally seem to rest in between the more extreme opinions given by the Israeli Jews and the Palestinians.
As for segacs comment above: “almost two-thirds [of Palestinians]don’t think that the 9-11 pilots were terrroists,” the question was:
4. In your opinion, were the people who flew planes into New Yorks World Trade Center [terrorists, martyrs, freedom fighters, don’t know]?
The largest section of all 3 groups (96% of Israeli Jews, 41% of Israeli Arabs, 37% of Palestinians) said “terrorists”. The second largest section of Israeli Arabs and Palestinians (27% for each group) said “don’t know”. So, to be accurate, it’s actually 36% of Palestinians that said they didn’t think the 911 pilots were terrorists (rather than segacs’ “almost two-thirds”).
One could also, using segacs’ formula to describe the results of question #13 above, say that “almost 60% of Israeli Jews would want to continue the occupation even after the Palestinians stopped the terror attacks and gave up the right of return.”
Again using segacs’ formula, then, one conclude that “The next time someone starts ranting about how the Israelis would be peaceful if only they had security, I suggest they consult the opinion polls.”
If the Palestinians were to stop the terrorist attacks and give up the right of return, should Israel withdraw from all the territories, including East Jerusalem,
and grant them statehood?
This is an ambiguous question, because “East Jerusalem” can be taken as including the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter. If the question mentioned a more specific boundary (e.g., the Taba proposal), then the response might be different.
59% would want to continue the intifida?
The optomist would say that 41% of Pals would want to end the intifida. There was progress made in the Oslo accords – 10 years ago this figure would have been much lower. Thats something!