The likely constituents of an American mass anti-war movement may be already or are in the process of becoming more critical of the state of Israel -- both (A) its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and (B) its Jewish supremacy regarding discrimination against Palestinian-Israelis and denial of (external and internal) Palestinian exiles' right of return -- than you think.
(1) Jews constitute about 2% of the US population (roughly six million), and Arabs, 1% (about three million). "According to the American Jewish Identity Survey 2001, done at City University of New York, only 51% of US Jews believed in any form of Judaism. By 2003, its followers are a minority of our Jews....In 1995 the American Jewish Committee reported that only 22% of all Jews declared themselves Zionists" (Lenni Brenner, "Michael Lerner and the Workers World Party: The Ranting Rabbi Doesn't Speak for All Anti-War Jews," February 19, 2003, <http://www.counterpunch.org/brenner02192003.html>). As we may safely predict that nearly all Arabs are strongly critical of Israeli policy toward Palestinians (in Israel, the occupied territories, and exile), we may also assume that anti-Zionist Arabs outnumber Zionist Jews (less than a quarter of US Jews) in the general US public and more disproportionately so in the anti-war movement.
(2) What is the proportion of non-Jewish Zionists in the total US population?
***** Public, Leaders a Poll Apart Los Angeles Times, May 26, 2002
Shibley Telhami, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies Steven Kull, Director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes, University of Maryland
...[A] national public opinion survey conducted mostly after the congressional resolution [that stated "the United States and Israel are now engaged in a common struggle against terrorism"] was passed (May 1-5) by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes suggests that the American public's perspective on the Middle East conflict is more nuanced than that of Congress....Only 17% of the survey's respondents said that Israel's struggle with the Palestinians was best understood as a Mideast version of the war on terrorism. Yes, 76% of the respondents said the Palestinian suicide attacks on Israeli civilians were unjustifiable. But the vast majority thought the conflict was best described as a struggle between two national groups over the same piece of land.
...Two-thirds of the survey's respondents said the U.S. should not take sides in the conflict. Perhaps more significant, only one in four thought that the U.S. was not now backing a party in the conflict.
...If the two sides still refused to end their fighting, 61% of the respondents said they would threaten to withhold aid to Israel and 64% said they would withhold some spare parts from Israel's military. As for the Palestinians, 63% of those polled would threaten to stop some aid to them and 50% said they would consider not dealing with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. If the Palestinians ended the suicide bombings and used only nonviolent forms of protest, the number of Americans who favored putting more pressure on Israel would rise to 84%.
...In the University of Maryland poll, respondents were asked to rate how much sympathy they had for each side in separate questions on a scale of 0 to 10. Half gave ratings no more than a point apart; only one in three gave Israel a significantly higher rating....
<http://www.brook.edu/views/op-ed/telhami/20020526.htm> *****
About 17-33% of Americans (see above), who uncritically support the state of Israel, are not likely to be won over to the anti-war movement anytime soon, whatever their thoughts on the idea of the Jewish state and the Palestinian right of return. The other Americans -- the majority of Americans -- reply to important questions promisingly, though. They are likely to support the demand that the US government end its military, economic, and diplomatic support to the state of Israel -- the key demand for US left-wingers with regard to the Israel question.
(3) Do most Americans support Palestinians' right of return? I venture to say that they do:
***** Copyright 2000 PR Newswire Association, Inc. PR Newswire July 18, 2000, Tuesday SECTION: WASHINGTON DATELINE DISTRIBUTION: TO FOREIGN, RELIGION AND NATIONAL EDITORS LENGTH: 572 words HEADLINE: U.S. Public Opinion Supports Palestinian State and Right to Return DATELINE: WASHINGTON, July 18
BODY: American voters support the implementation of Palestinian rights in any future Middle East peace agreement.
A survey of 890 likely voters nation-wide showed 66 percent supporting the Palestinian right to independent statehood -- with only 13 percent opposed to that right.
The poll, commissioned by the Arab American Institute (AAI), was conducted by Zogby International (ZI) of New York. The AAI/ZI poll was conducted from July 14-17, 2000 and had a margin of sampling error of +/- 3.4 percent.
The poll focused on principles and not on the modalities of implementation. These issues and the forms of U.S. participation in final arrangements reached at Camp David may be addressed in a future poll. The results of the July 14-17, AAI/ZI poll are as follow:
"President Clinton is currently meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat at Camp David to seek a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. I am going to read you a few of the issues that must be decided by the Israelis and the Palestinians."
1. Do you agree or disagree with the Palestinian right to establish an independent state?
32.8% Strongly Agree < 66% Agree 33.3% Somewhat Agree 5.4% Somewhat Disagree < 13% Disagree 7.5% Strongly Disagree
2. Israel has claimed all of Jerusalem as its capital. Palestinians say that East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 war, should be the site of the Palestinian capital. In your view, should Jerusalem be ...
22% Entirely Israeli 43.5% A divided or shared capital between Israelis and Palestinians 14% Neither
3. Israeli law holds that Jews from anywhere in the world have the right to come to Israel and become citizens of that state. However, since Israel was created in 1948, millions of Palestinians have become refugees. The UN passed a resolution saying that Palestinians have the right to return to their homes. Do you agree or disagree that Palestinians have this right to return?
51.4% Strongly Agree < 74% Agree 22.6% Somewhat Agree 4.7% Somewhat Disagree < 9% Agree 4.5% Strongly Disagree
4. In general, do you agree or disagree with President Clinton's handling of the Middle East peace effort?
28.7% Strongly Agree < 63% Agree 34% Somewhat Agree 6.7% Somewhat Disagree < 23% Disagree 14.9% Strongly Disagree
"These poll results show that American voters will support a peace agreement that recognizes, in principle, Palestinian rights in a number of areas. These results show continued steady improvement in some American voters' appreciation of Palestinian concerns. The peace process, the present involvement of President Clinton and a sense of urgency that time is running out in an effort to reach a comprehensive agreement may all account for this improvement," said AAI President Dr. James J. Zogby.
AAI is a national organization committed to the civic and political empowerment of Americans of Arab descent.
SOURCE Arab American Institute
CONTACT: Jenny Salan of the Arab American Institute, 202-429-9210 or jsalan at arab-aai.org
URL: http://www.prnewswire.com
LOAD-DATE: July 19, 2000 *****
That's a poll from a little less than three years ago. By now, ordinary Americans' support for Palestinians' right to return to their homes may have increased. Certainly, among anti-war organizers and activists, as well as among our potential activist constituencies, support for it should be higher than the US average. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>