Iran: What Americans want, what American Jews want

Those of you who read this blog frequently probably know by now how fascinated am I by polls. (Since I'm not a politician, I'm allowed to admit to having such a weakness). And this weekend, I was fortunate enough as to have two new interesting polls dealing with issues with which I deal almost every day.

The first one is the annual AJC survey for 2006. The second is the PIPA poll titled "What Kind of Foreign Policy Does the American Public Want?"

"Seven in 10 Americans are looking for candidates who will pursue a new approach to U.S. foreign policy," the PIPA poll found. "Most Americans think that the negative attitudes toward the United States expressed by publics in the Middle East reflect their dislike of U.S. policies, not their rejection of America's values."

Americans, according to this poll, favor shifting of foreign policy priorities. "A large majority feels that the Bush administration has put too much emphasis on military force. Majorities want their Congressional representatives to place a higher priority on reducing oil dependence, strengthening homeland security and a variety of soft power approaches (such as intelligence cooperation, improving intercultural understanding, and building goodwill through aid). Given the opportunity to redistribute the foreign policy budget." Not a big surprise, but the numbers are remarkable: 67 percent agree that "In the effort to fight terrorism [the Bush administration] should put more emphasis on diplomatic and economic methods" (up from 58 percent in September 2003).

In the one question related to Israel, the pollsters asked whether the respondents would want their member of Congress to get the U.S. government to pressure "both Israel and the Palestinians to resolve their conflict." 50 percent said they will, 22 percent asked for less pressure, 25 percent were happy with the current level of pressure (of course, there's an inherent flaw in this question, as the respondents weren't given other possible options - for example: Pressuring Hamas even harder to recognize Israel or Pressuring Israel harder to withdraw from the West Bank).

In the AJC poll there are also many interesting numbers (I will write more about it in the coming days). The most heart warming: 74 percent agreed that "caring about Israel is a very important part of my being a Jew." The most troubling - you choose: 81 believe that the Arabs want to destroy Israel and not just to get back the occupied territories; 56 believe that Israel and the Arabs will never be able to "settle their differences and live in peace."

Interestingly, these two polls meet on the question of Iran. 54 percent of American Jews oppose a US military action against Iran (57 percent though support such action by Israel). And the same reluctance to confront Iran can be found on the PIPA poll: Just 28% will urge their legislator to help "dissident groups to try to overthrow the government of Iran" - 39 percent want the pressure on Iran to ease. A majority favor "entering into talks with North Korea and Iran without preconditions."

More on Iran on Rosner's Domain:

Israel will not let Europeans off the hook.

The Iran Time Saver: Features, opinion, interviews, studies.