Misleading the public
Washington Jewish Week Online
September 6, 2007
By Morton A. Klein
Douglas M. Bloomfield contends that “most Israelis back withdrawal” from Judea and Samaria (“The enemy within,” WJW, Sept. 16). That’s not true — severÂal recent polls show the very opposite.
A poll published last month by the Israeli daily, Maariv, found that an overwhelming three-quarters of Israelis (74 percent–18 percent) oppose Israel making any further unilateral withdrawals. The same poll showed that Israelis regard the 2005 Gaza/northern Samaria unilateral withdrawal as a mistake (59 percent–29 percent) and believe that withdrawal worsened Israel’s national security situation (51 percent–12 percent).
A Dahaf Institute poll in June found that 68 percent of Israelis are opposed to withdrawing from the Golan Heights and 53 percent are opposed to withdrawals from Judea and Samaria — in both cases, not even in return for a “real peace.” Also, an INSS (Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies) poll in May found 58 percent of Israelis rejecting “land-for-peace” formula and 72 percent opposing the uprooting of Jewish communities within the framework of further Israeli unilateral withdrawals in Judea and Samaria.
Mr. Bloomfield needs to take greater care not to mislead the public.
MORTON A. KLEIN
National President
Zionist Organization of America
New York, N.Y.