Comments on: Pew Survey: Israelis View U.S. Policy as ‘Too Favorable’ Toward Israel

By: Zhu Bajie

Zhu Bajie — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 07:21:11 +0000

How does Pew define “too favorable”?

Zhu Bajie

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 04:46:32 +0000

I think statistics 101 would be an excellent intellectual pursuit for you, hopefully at the undergraduate level.

Yr. attempts at wit are indeed savage & oh so cutting. If you’ve got problems w. the Pew survey take it up w. them. I didn’t make up the statistics. I didn’t conduct the poll. Yr sarcasm is misplaced.

Further, the poll wasn’t measuring Israeli political attitudes or who they voted for in an election. It was trying to measure for the sake of U.S. policy makers & Americans the attitudes of foreign countries toward us. It simply found that a plurality of Israelis believe that U.S. policy tilts toward Israel. That’s my simply comparative analysis. If you don’t like it lump it.

What’s interesting is when right-wing pro-Israel ideologues find that poll numbers show that they’re in the minority of Israelis they all of a sudden doubt the poll or the messenger as in my case.

By: david friedlander

david friedlander — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 21:02:58 +0000

I think statistics 101 would be an excellent intellectual pursuit for you, hopefully at the undergraduate level.
The “right wing” in Israel has dominated the political scene, bringing both Netanyahu and Sharon who are staunchly pro-Israel. Before that there was Barak who was a centrist or a left wing prime minister mugged by reality. The platforms of these leaders are well known.

So there are two options - either we can believe the poll that you quote with all the problems that polls can have (phraseology, methodology, sample size) or we can believe what Israelis actually vote for. Furthermore if you look specifically at the Israeli Jewish population there is a large margin.
If you cannot draw a simple comparative analysis of this nature than your credibility is severely harmed

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 08:32:56 +0000

What does the PGAS say about, for example, Iranian attitudes towards their government’s policy on Israelis and Palestinians respectively

I don’t believe it says anything on that subject as it deals mostly with issues concerning U.S. foreign policy.

By: John Yorke

John Yorke — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 06:02:17 +0000

Thus it follows that, somewhere in the great scheme of things, something without bias is needed. Or something where bias is so reduced or effectively removed from the equation that it ceases to become an issue.

Ring any bells?

By: geoffrey

geoffrey — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 03:49:37 +0000

What does the PGAS say about, for example, Iranian attitudes towards their government’s policy on Israelis and Palestinians respectively. And do you think the 56 members of the Islamic Conference are even-handed in their approach>

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 02:30:11 +0000

There’s nothing wrong w. a nation’s foreign policy being slanted toward one people & against another–unless that nation is supposedly attempting to play a constructive role in brokering a settlement bet. the 2 peoples. And when the people of Israel admit that the U.S. is overly favorable toward their interests (& biased against the interests of the Palestinians by implication), then this doesn’t bode well.

As for that 13% of Israelis who believe we support the Palestinians, those are the Israelis who don’t believe there IS a Palestinian people or that they deserve anything other than bullets down their throats.

By: imjudy

imjudy — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 18:49:40 +0000

To have a poll claim that 42% of Israelis think the US is “too supportive” of Israel only makes me question what kind of a poll this is. No doubt Israeli Arabs might think this, but they are not 42% of the population of Israel.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:45:19 +0000

amechad, it says exactly “too supportive”.

What’s more remarkable, is that 13% of Israelis think that the US is “too supportive” of the Palestinians. Geez, what the hell do they want!

By: amechad

amechad — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:38:13 +0000

Wait wait wait, where is the word “too” coming in. That 42% of Israelis say Americans are supportive of Israel, 37% say America is balanced and 8% say it’s pro-Pal, but reading the survey, the “too” doesn’t seem to have been so clear. 42% of Israelis saying the US is pro-Israel (tilted towards Israel) is not a bad thing (in their/our minds).