Israelis urge nuclear disarmament

[Aidoneus]

Israelis urge nuclear disarmament
Thursday 01 January 2004

One in four Israelis believe their country should give up its nuclear arsenal to rid the Middle East of weapons of mass- destruction.

A poll published on Thursday found that 77.4% of Israelis believe Tel Aviv has nuclear weapons, and 25.2% think these should be eliminated as part of any regional disarmament campaign.

The poll of 504 Israelis, which was commissioned by the state broadcaster, also found that 56.1% of those surveyed were opposed to nuclear disarmament, while 18.7% did not express an opinion.

Meanwhile, more than 22% said that either they did not believe Israel had the bomb, or did not know whether it had.

Israel's nuclear weapons programme, which it neither admits or denies having, has come under extra scrutiny since Libya said last month it was abandoning its non-conventional capability.

--snip--

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/567B6BC0-2AA0-4112-83EE-2056EE444FE3.htm

[Kolesar]

1. The headline should be Israelis *Oppose* Nuclear Disarmament

That was deceivingly written. 56.1% oppose disarmament according to the article text. (I know it was not the poster's fault)

[MikeGalos]

2. Oh my gosh! Just imagine.

Amazing.

Al-Jazeerah lied about Israel...
And it got posted here...

I'm shocked. Who'da thunk it. :shrug:

[Kolesar]

3. this is one touchy forum (eom)

[Aidoneus]

4. I thought of the headline, but that wasn't as interesting as the 4th line

Mike, how can the Israeli regime keep a quarter of their population in the dark about whether or not they possess the means of annihilating millions within a few minutes' time? Israel isn't a big country, how can that be kept hidden from that amount of people?

What part did they lie about? The first line in the piece denotes that it is a quarter of Israelis surveyed being spoken of..

[GabysPoppy]

7. You may be mistaken in your analysis

The article clearly states that 504 Israelis were polled. My guess is that the population of Israel may be slightly higher.

However noting the source and some peoples reliance of the accuracy and honesty of Al-Jazeer, I could be wrong in my guess.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. You do realise no poll includes entire populations?

And that the polls done that have half or more Palestinians supporting suicide bombings aren't done on the entire population, but a small cross-section of it which is probably around the same size as this poll was...

If you have some dispute over the results of the poll or the reliability of it, feel free to share with us. If not, attacking the source of the article doesn't seem relevent at all to the reliability of the poll results it's reporting about...


Violet...

[Aidoneus]

11. Israel Radio was behind the poll, not al-Jazeera

The latter are merely reporting on the findings from it (the same findings can be read in Haaretz or--as is the preference of Israel's fan club here--the Jerusalem Post).. where exactly was the lie? I'm familiar with the automatic tendency by now, but I'm also familiar with the other tendency of not elaborating on such allegations.. You can take it up with Israel Radio, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it is not actually the facts of the matter so much as the medium that is being disagreed with.

Though really, this knee-jerk "LIES! LIES! ALL LIES!" act is cute--don't stop..

[Scurrilous]

13. Link to JPost:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1072930910073&p=1008596981749

<snip>

"An Israel Radio poll reveals that 77% of Israelis believe Israel possesses nuclear weapons, and 56% believe they should not be disarmed."

[GabysPoppy]

14. Which part of 504 Israelis is confusing?

"The poll of 504 Israelis, which was commissioned by the state broadcaster"

That is representative of what?

There are more than 500 people in my office building. Would a poll of the building be indicative of anything?

This pattern of knee-jerk baloney may not be cute but it is fattening. So whether you choose to stop or not is of no matter.

[Violet_Crumble]

16. Yr complaint seems to be with Israeli Radio, not Al-Jazeera...

The reference to knee-jerking is clearly about those who accuse Al-Jazeera of lying, without stopping to think that it was Israeli Radio and not Al-Jazeera that carried out the poll, and that the results have been reported in the conservative Israeli media as well. Does that also make them liars?

You aren't aware that polls nowhere ever poll entire populations, but polls cross-sections, and if it's a reputable poll carried out by a reputable organisation, it is indicative of the population within a few percentage points? It's just that you didn't have this same reaction when a recent poll based on 1319 respondents found fewer Palestinians supported suicide-bombings. In fact, you treated it as though it was indicative of the entire Palestinian population..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=124&topic_id=39332#39464

So, are you saying that polling 1319 people does end up in results that are indicative of a population, while polling 504 isn't?

I'm not aware of how the Israeli Radio poll was carried out, but I doubt very much it involved polling 504 people working in the same building. Obviously a poll of one workplace wouldn't be indicative of an entire population, but as no-one is claiming that the poll was carried out that way, it seems rather irrelevant to the discussion, as does slamming Al-Jazeera....

What I don't get is you obviously have a problem with the results of this particular poll, but I don't understand what the problem is. The results didn't seem too unreasonable to me...

Violet...

[Darranar]

9. Well...

According to another poll, a third of Americans think the US has found WMD in Iraq.

[GabysPoppy]

12. Based on your comment

You are also convinced that 504 Israelis are a representative sampling of the Israeli population?

And if your comment had nothing to do with the current discussion, please tell me what is the significance? I am having trouble trying to place it in context.

[Jim Sagle]

5. No shit? I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

:boring:

[Violet_Crumble]

6. Where was the lie?

The headline was one that would have been correct if written to say Israelis do support disarmament or they don't support disarmament. If you think Al-Jazeerah lied about Israel, feel free to point out where the lie was...

Of course it's cute that even with an article with a title that is much more favourable to Israeli opinion than it could have been, there's still attacks on the source of the article :)

Violet...

[madrchsod]

8. we just can`t trust

those people now can we? i mean they are the enemy.they aren`t like us because we publish the truth about everything, don`t we. everyone in the world publishs the truth but them- yes they are the enemy , they never publish the truth ,and god forbid we even read what they have to say.

[Aidoneus]

15. there is a positive by-product of the "hear no evil" act here

a Haaretz piece on the poll mentioned here also had some other interesting responses..

--snip--

Respondents were also asked if they agreed with the reported decision to expand settlement on the Golan Heights and establish nine new Israeli towns there, 53 percent agreed with what media reports said would double the Jewish population of the strategic plateau. Syria has condemned the plan, and an anxious Bush administration has asked Israel to clarify its stance on the matter.

The poll showed that Israeli public opinion is divided over the shooting of demonstrators last week during a protest at the West Bank fence.

The incident drew wide interest because one of the two demonstrators injured by IDF fire was Israeli.

A total of 41 percent found the shooting unjustified, while 36 said that it was justified, the radio said.

In the ranking of Man of the Year in Israeli Politics, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came in first with 41 percent. But Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprisingly strong showing at 36 percent.

--snip--

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/378531.html