February 22, 1996
Web posted at: 2:45 p.m. EST
From Correspondent Gary Tuchman
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A survey of over 1,000 American Jews reveals an increasing level of support toward the Israeli government, and it appears to have much to do with the November assassination of Israel's prime minister.
The assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has led to polls showing many Israelis becoming more sympathetic to the Israeli-Arab peace process.
The same thing is evident among Jews in the United States, according to a survey just released by the American Jewish Committee.
"American Jewish attitudes on these issues are important. They are self evidentially important because of the role that American Jews have traditionally played with respect to foreign policy issues in the Middle East," says David Harris with the American Jewish Committee.
When asked if they support or oppose the Israeli government's current handling of the peace negotiations with the Arabs, 79 percent of American Jews now say they support it. Before the assassination, the total was 68 percent.
Even the very religious orthodox Jews, who have been the only segment of U.S. Judaism with a majority against the peace process, have changed their views a bit. Before the assassination, 64 percent opposed the handling of the peace process. Now, that opposition percentage has declined to 56 percent.
One of the items the American Jewish Committee found most surprising pertained to the climate that led to the assassination. As expected, opponents of the peace process are most often viewed as contributing heavily to such a climate.
However, Harris says, "You find that in fact, clear majorities of American Jews are prepared to assign much broader responsibility to many Israelis both to the left and the right and the center for having contributed to this polarized climate."
Israeli government representatives in the United States believe these results are significant.
"It is certainly helpful to the state of Israel because we very highly appreciate and value public opinion in this country. It is vital for us, and certainly the Jewish community is a very large segment of the public opinion," says Colette Avital with the Israeli Consul General.
A clear majority of U.S. Jews favor the peace process, but an even larger majority echo a pessimistic viewpoint that in their opinion, Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization are not doing enough to control extremist groups.
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