J Street to ADL: Let’s do a poll

[oberliner]

J Street executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami says he has a proposal for the Anti-Defamation League.

He wants to team up with the organization for a "serious poll" that explores American Jewish opinion on Israel and the Middle East, as opposed to the survey which the ADL released last week and which ADL national director Abraham Foxman said strongly contradicts "those who disagreed with Israel's actions against Hamas and claimed there was a sharp division in the American Jewish community."

Ben-Ami believes Foxman was referring to his organization -- neither Foxman nor the poll mentioned any specific group -- but said, "I don't think the poll is at all relevant to what we were saying."

The poll asked whether American Jews favored Israel or Hamas in the conflict -- with overwhelming numbers favoring Israel -- and found that 79 percent of American Jews felt Israel's response to Hamas rocket attacks was "appropriate," with just 17 judging them "excessive."

But Ben-Ami responded that it was no surprise that the vast majority of American Jews favored Israel over Hamas, and that while the latter finding was interesting, his organization didn't take a position on that issue. Instead, J Street was questioning whether "these types of actions" in Gaza "make Israel more secure" in the long run and "enhance the prospect of achieving peace and security." And he said that ADL didn't ask that question in its poll.

http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2009/02/03/1002742/j-street-to-adl-lets-do-a-poll

[Howardx]

1. i knew that adl poll was crap

"The poll asked whether American Jews favored Israel or Hamas in the conflict"

gimme a break.

[Captain Needa]

4. As crappy as the poll in Europe

Manipulated surveys are an opinion-leading tool.

[oberliner]

6. What was manipulated about the European poll?

The statements were pretty straightforward.

[Captain Needa]

8. The questionnaire itself

All questions put Jews in a negative way, and only one of the answer choices is favorable. That conditions the whole survey.

[oberliner]

5. More is better

I don't think any polls are "crap" per se but I think that more polling data with a variety of different questions with different wording could be instructive.

[Howardx]

7. cmon oberliner

asking american jews if they prefer hamas or israel? thats not a legitimate poll question its a way to reach a preconceived conclusion. the adl is not an impartial player and their polls should not be taken seriously.

[bemildred]

9. All polls are crap, "for amusement purposes only".

Murky snapshots of ambiguous attitudes that are changing all the time. It's not easy to do good statistics even when you know what you are talking about, and most political polls do not have that advantage, are more about creating "news" and getting your name before the public than anything "scientific".

[jwirr]

2. I usually ignore posts in this section because you are damn if you

do and damned if you don't. I am neither anti Israel or anti Palestinian but I wish that they would both set down and help us find a way to bring about a lasting peace. The whole world is suffering because of this argument and we cannot afford to ignore other world issues while we keep the lid on this one. PLEASE HELP.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

3. "Wouldn't it be nice if everyone was nice" is not a helpful contribution, I fear.

Everyone knows it's true, but since not everyone is nice, and never will be, it doesn't get anyone anywhere much.

[jwirr]

12. I'm not suggesting nice - I am suggesting that we all recognize that

the world is in a very big mess economically, climate wise and oil peak and that these combined emergencies call for working together if we want to survive. It is no longer just about what we want for our own countries - it is about what we want for all of us. And I do not believe we can do much about the above three without some sort of peaceful coexistence. These wars are costing a lot of money that needs to be directed elsewhere.

[azurnoir]

10. IMO it was quite "clever" that the poll was outlined as

Israel vs Hamas and Hamas only, the civilians in Gaza were not included nor were there any questions regarding the effects of Israel's attack on Gaza's civilian population, almost as if they either do not exist or do not count somehow.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

11. J Street should commission its own poll. nt