[WCUSP] CNI poll shows Americans wary of Israel lobby

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

Council for the National Interest  Foundation

New CNI Poll Shows Americans Wary of Israel  Lobby
Date: October 18,  2006  
A new poll commissioned by the Council for the National  Interest Foundation 
shows that a significant number of Americans are wary of the  power of the  
Israel lobby,  and believe it is behind the invasion of  Iraq and the  current 
belligerent tone of the White House and Congress toward  Iran.  
The poll, which was carried out by Zogby International,  reveals that 39% of 
the American public "agree" or "somewhat agree" that "the work of the Israel 
lobby on Congress and the Bush administration has  been a key factor for going 
to war in Iraq and now confronting Iran." However, a similar number, 40%, 
"strongly disagreed" or "somewhat  disagreed" with this position. Some 20% of the 
public, or more than  one in five, were not sure. 
The poll suggests that the espionage charges against two  employees of the 
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the  publicity given to a 
new study of the power of the  Israel lobby by  two mainstream academic 
professors has had an affect on people's awareness of  the lobby. 
The academic study, done by Professor John Mearsheimer of the  University of 
Chicago and Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard University, was  published in 
the London Review of Books in March 2006, and was the subject of a  recent 
debate at Peter Cooper Union that included Professor Mearsheimer, Prof.  Rashid 
Khalidi (Columbia University), and Prof. Tony Judt (New York University)  and 
three influential pro-Zionists, Martin Indyk, Dennis Ross, and Shlomo  Ben-Ami. 
The poll's details show that 46% of Democrats tended to  believe that the 
lobby was influential in the decision to go to war in  Iraq while 45%  of 
Republicans tended to believe it was not. 
Along religious lines, while Protestants tended to be evenly  divided on the 
role of the Israel Lobby in the  Iraq invasion,  49% of Catholics tended to 
see the lobby's hand in the invasion, while 77% of  Jewish Americans 
overwhelming disagreed with the premise. Among ethnic groups,  Hispanics (53%) believed 
that the lobby's role was influential. 
Among age groups, 50% of those between the ages of 18 and 29  agreed that the 
 Israel lobby had  a hand in forming the current pro-war policy. As one might 
expect,  those who call themselves progressive (49%) or liberal (52%) also 
agreed in the  role of the lobby, while "moderates" (42%) and "very 
conservative" (44%) people  disagreed with the idea, as did a significant percentage of 
college graduates  (44%).  
Eugene Bird, president of CNI Foundation, commented about the  poll, "It 
demonstrates the need for widening the circulation of information  about the role 
of the Neocons and the pro-Israel lobby in the corridors of power  during the 
lead-up to the invasion of  Iraq in 2003."  
Some 1,035 people participated in the poll, which was  conducted in every 
part of the country. For a full presentation of  the data, see 
_www.cnionline.org/learn/polls/czandlobby/_ 
(http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=210816271&url_num=2&url=http://www.cnionline.org/polls) . 

 
____________________________________

Council for the National Interest Foundation
1250 4th Street SW, Suite  WG-1
Washington, District of Columbia 20024
_http://www.cnionline.org/_ 
(http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=210816271&url_num=3&url=http://www.cnionline.org/) 
_http://www.rescuemideastpolicy.com/_ 
(http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=210816271&url_num=4&url=http://www.rescuemideastpolicy.com/) 
Phone:  202-863-2951
Fax: 202-863-2952

To unsubscribe, please click here: 
_http://democracyinaction.org/cnif/unsubscribe.jsp_ (http://www.democ
racyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=210816271&url_num=5&url=http://democracyinaction.org/cnif/unsubscribe.jsp)   
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /pipermail/wcusp_wilpf.org/attachments/20061019/1e4f1101/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 43 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : /pipermail/wcusp_wilpf.org/attachments/20061019/1e4f1101/attachment.gif