12 thoughts on “Trump Trumpets Sudan Deal, Arab-American Poll Slants Results to Favor UAE Normalization – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. Zogby’s poll was taken in September 2019, well before the UAE and Bahrain normalized under the ‘Abramic Accords’.

    Zogby was so shocked by the findings, that he even re-polled, and asked a more open-ended question in order to ascertain ‘why’ normalization might be desirable.

    The results of re-polling remained the same.

    1. @ Wunsch: I don’t know where you’re getting that poll date. But the full poll results linked in my post clearly show the poll was administered in June-July 2020 and all the media reports were published in the past few months.

      Further, it doesn’t matter whether he went back and repolled. He cooked the books on the poll. If you have a client who wants a certain result and you tailor the questions toward that result you can repoll till your heart’s content and will get the same result.

  2. “I tweeted to Zogby asking who commissioned and paid for the poll”.

    The 2019 poll was commissioned by the Sir Bani Yas Forum, which is organised by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS.

    Here is the link to the 2019 poll.
    Regarding normalization and the extraordinary poll results, see link below, pages 7-8.

    https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52750dd3e4b08c252c723404/t/5e18df6a0375df3ce80ff6bb/1578688363493/2019+SBY+standalone.pdf

    1. @ Wunsch: Now I know you don’t follow all the links in my posts. Please do that next time before commenting. You’ve linked to an earlier poll, which I wasn’t referring to.

      But you have further buttressed my claim that UAE funds his polling work. Thank you for that. He has not revealed who specifically funded the latest poll. And he seems to be concealing that information for some reason.

  3. While there may be reasons in such polls to divide polling into Jewish and Palestinian-Israeli segments, there should never be polling concerning Israeli national issues that excludes either group. Doing so, renders the results completely biased and incomplete (at best).’

    Why? Surely you aren’t implying Israeli Palestinians are citizens in anything more than a purely nominal sense. You might as well object to a poll taken in 1920 Alabama on the grounds that it disregarded the opinion of blacks.

    There is this recurrent tendency to reason as if Israel is an egalitarian democracy, or should be, or could be. It’s not. It never will be. Wrap your head around that and you’ll be able to reason much more clearly.

    The opinions of Palestinians in Israel are no more relevant than the opinions of white-tailed deer are here. They’re simply not members of the body politic.

    1. @ Colin WRight: There is a certain nihilism and cynicism in your perspective which I reject out of hand. I understand that perhaps you relish the idea of being Devil’s Advocate for provocative opinions. But you go too far.

      Of course the views of Blacks in Alabama in 1920 were important. Just because white society disregarded them doesn’t mean they weren’t important. If we adopted your approach Blacks in Alabama today would have no more rights than they had in 1920.

      Those of us who aren’t as corrosively cynical as you believe that Israel can become a state of all its citizens. Some day. That faith guides what I do, even if it doesn’t resonate for you.

  4. You know, Richard. Sometimes I have to laugh.

    You say I don’t follow all the links in your post, but YOU don’t follow all the links in your post.

    You talk about Zogby coming to his own defense in Mondoweiss, but you don’t see that Zogby is referencing his September 2019 poll, not the later one you talk about.

    Zogby’s re-polling may have been redundant, but the quotes he gets from the Arabs he’s polling are illustrative.

    Quotes like:

    “Going to normalization…gives a chance for Palestine because the whole world is now busy with what is hap- pening in Syria, Iraq, and Iran. I believe that if there is a convincing normalization process, there will be a good chance to establish a Palestinian state.”

    –and–

    “All evidence is that most Arabs have hidden ties…with Israel. It is better for them to declare such ties in front of the Palestinians. Better than hiding it… [But then goes on to add] This normalization should have clear and strict conditions that ensures the return of Palestinian lands, return of refugees and a Palestinian state”
    “Arab countries will develop relations with Israel because they are under pressure from the USA.”

    –and–

    “I agree with this for a period of time, in order for us to regain our power and gradually get back our lands.”

    1. @ Wunsch:

      Zogby is referencing his September 2019 poll, not the later one you talk about.

      No. The article Zogby wrote published in GulfNews and Mondoweiss was published in August 2020. In it, he refers to his 2019 poll. Then in the same article he says that he repolled. He did that in June-July 2020:

      In June of 2020, in the midst of the furore over Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s threat to annex much of the West Bank, we went back into the field to test Arab opinion on the question of normalizing before peace.

      You’d know that if you read the 2020 poll summary itself. Those are the results referred to in the 2020 poll to which I linked. It is you who’ve misunderstood Zogby, not I.

      My criticism of ZOgby’s polling includes both polls. SO it doesn’t make any difference to me which poll we refer to. They’re both junk.

      The quotes Zogby uses ‘illustrate’ nothing more than an individual he polled who said something that supported his preconceived notions and those of his UAE patrons. Anecdotes are not trends nor even data. They are one individual’s opinions.

      The notion that normalization will help Palestinians is not only stupid, but toxic. And of course you, an Ashkenazi pro-Israel Jew, would Palesplain to them why what’s clearly noxious (to them), is actually like Balm in Gilead. Please!

      You are done in this thread.

  5. Palestinians will be pressured to leave their Promised homeland …

    “Poll: 68 percent of Israelis favor sovereignty in Judea and Samaria”

    Seems to exist a permanent gap in expectations 😡

  6. With friends like Zoghby, who needs enemies! To me as an Arab, this poll’s results are a reflection of the counter Arab-Spring wave sweeping the Arab world. A widening gap between the ruling class & the voiceless masses.

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