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Thread ID: 18823 | Posts: 6 | Started: 2005-06-25
2005-06-25 00:12 | User Profile
"Graduate students hostile to Israel", pollster claims GARY ROSENBLATT The New York Jewish Week
A new survey of attitudes toward Israel among graduate students at top U.S. universities offers a picture of increasing sympathy for the Palestinian cause and blame on the Jewish state for the lack of peace.
The report being issued this week by The Israel Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group seeking to strengthen Israel's image, finds that "tomorrow's leaders . . . are hostile to the Jewish state," a growing trend that could jeopardize American foreign policy toward Israel in the near future.
Titled "How The Next Generation Views Israel," the report was written by Frank Luntz, a pollster who has conducted a number of surveys on the attitudes of young people toward Israel and Jewish life for The Israel Project and other groups.
It was based on "face-to-face group interviews" Luntz conducted with nearly 150 students under the age of 30 in New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. They attended law, business, journalism or government programs at Harvard, MIT, Columbia, Georgetown, George Washington, Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago, Northwestern and UCLA.
Many of the students come from homes sympathetic to Israel, Luntz reported, but through exposure to university professors and mainstream media have grown "impatient" with Israel and emotionally connected to the Palestinian cause, to the point of rationalizing Palestinian suicide bombings and coming to see Israel as a "burden" to the United States rather than "an ally."
What's more, Luntz found a thin line between anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment among "these young elites," noting that "they may not be in the 'Zionism is racism' camp, but they're not all that far away." He said the students "view any U.S. support of Israel as generated by wealthy Jewish special interests rather than as a reflection of the national interest."
Compounding the problem, the report said, is that the students, predominantly left-of-center politically, are so opposed to President Bush that his support for Israel is seen as a negative factor.
In the eyes of the graduate students, Luntz said, "to support Israel as a Jew is to be narrow-minded and one-sided. To support the Palestinians is to be progressive and thoughtful."
He noted that many of the students said they changed their attitudes toward the Mideast conflict during their college and post-college years as they "learned more," in their words, about the situation from professors, Palestinians they met on campus and the media. The New York Times is the top source of news information, and the BBC is widely seen as well.
The students believe the American media is biased toward Israel, according to the report, and that Palestinians are making a greater effort toward peace than Israel.
An Israeli government official dealing with media issues said he had not yet read the report but questioned its methodology and intent. The official, who asked not to be identified, said the findings would have more weight if they were from an objective poll or survey.
Instead, these were gathered by Luntz in direct conversation with the graduate students, and Luntz's style is to "put his pro-Israel views upfront" so that much of a focus group's reactions depend on whether the participants like him or not, the Israeli official said.
He added that The Israel Project tends to seek out and publicize negative opinions on Israel so as to bolster its own fund-raising efforts, portraying itself as more effective than Israel in the area of hasbara, or shaping public opinion.
This criticism is not new, and The Israel Project, which once worked closely with officials in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, has seen that relationship fade in the last year or two.
Others, though, say Israeli officials are overly sensitive to implicit criticism of their difficult work in seeking to improve Israel's image.
According to Luntz's findings, the graduate students "know nothing about the history of the Middle East," including the fact that the United Nations was involved in Israel's founding or that Israel is a democracy.
About half of the 50-page report offers advice on how to counter the situation, and Luntz urged pro-Israel groups and individuals to "express genuine recognition" that Palestinians have suffered, and to blame the problem on corrupt Palestinian leaders.
"If there is such a thing as a magic bullet" in terms of an effective response, Luntz said it is the fact that "America's future leaders hate Hamas and Islamic Jihad" and don't expect Israel to negotiate with them.
Gary Rosenblatt is editor and publisher of The New York Jewish Week.
[url]http://www.jewishaz.com/issues/story.mv?050624+graduate[/url]
2005-06-25 00:28 | User Profile
I keep saying "When the truth comes into the light the lies will hide in the dark" but in the case of the Jews it should be "When the truth comes into the light get ready to yell louder".....those people think that by yelling laouder they can kill the truth but the people are awakening as to who they really are.
PS: Is it [B]who[/B] they really are or [B]whom[/B] they really are?
2005-07-02 05:55 | User Profile
[QUOTE]The report being issued this week by The Israel Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group seeking to strengthen Israel's image, finds that "tomorrow's leaders . . . are hostile to the Jewish state," a growing trend that could jeopardize American foreign policy toward Israel in the near future. Good!
It was based on "face-to-face group interviews" Luntz conducted with nearly 150 students under the age of 30 in New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. They attended law, business, journalism or government programs at Harvard, MIT, Columbia, Georgetown, George Washington, Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago, Northwestern and UCLA. No engineering or science? Oh well. :)
Many of the students come from homes sympathetic to Israel, Luntz reported, but through exposure to university professors and mainstream media have grown "impatient" with Israel and emotionally connected to the Palestinian cause, to the point of rationalizing Palestinian suicide bombings and coming to see Israel as a "burden" to the United States rather than "an ally." No. The deal is that grad students at the best schools -- and especially their professors -- are among the smartest people in the country (no one disputes that there's a pretty strong correlation between educational level and IQ). Smarter people see reality more clearly and are less susceptible to government and media propaganda.
What's more, Luntz found a thin line between anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment among "these young elites," noting that "they may not be in the 'Zionism is racism' camp, but they're not all that far away." Zionism IS racism. It's Jewish supremacism, pure and simple.
He said the students "view any U.S. support of Israel as generated by wealthy Jewish special interests rather than as a reflection of the national interest." They are precisely correct in that view.
In the eyes of the graduate students, Luntz said, "to support Israel as a Jew is to be narrow-minded and one-sided. To support the Palestinians is to be progressive and thoughtful." It's more a question of whether you support the arrogant, hostile aggressors or the defending underdogs.
The students believe the American media is biased toward Israel, according to the report... It is.
...and that Palestinians are making a greater effort toward peace than Israel. This is true, with the exception of some Palestinian militants. The latter are used by Israel as an excuse to avoid negotiations. Israel refuses to negotiate with the Palestinians unless the militants are 100% under control. This is impossible to achieve, of course, and Israel knows it. You can never stop all militancy.
According to Luntz's findings, the graduate students "know nothing about the history of the Middle East," including the fact that the United Nations was involved in Israel's founding... Everyone knows that. They also know that Israel is holding territory illegally, is in violation of all kinds of UN resolutions, and is protected from other resolutions by USZOG's veto power.
...or that Israel is a democracy. Of course they don't know that, since it's not even true. Israel is a fascist ethnostate that puts up a democratic facade.
2005-07-11 04:30 | User Profile
Zionism has spent the past century strategically dispossessing the Palestinian people. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality It has ignored their just claims and subjected them to persecution, torture and death.It has, in particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children..... We condemn the current Zionist atrocities in the Occupaid Land of Palestine We yearn for peace based upon mutual respect. We are convinced that this proposed mutual respect is doomed to fail as long as the Israeli state exists. We welcome its abolition in any manner Reem alhusseini
2005-07-11 16:16 | User Profile
Honestly i really dont care what the joos do over there, i do however care about the HUGE sums of money they milk from our economy that ends up in israel. That is second only to my concerns about what such groups as the splc and adl are doing to tear at the fabric of the remnant of American culture and western society in general.
2005-07-12 03:48 | User Profile
Americans should ask themselves whether it is American interests that are looked after or rather Israeli ones. USA is aZionist Occupation Government if anything you should cre about that......... IT Is A Zionist War shmuck ?