Archive for the 'Public Opinion' Category

Boycott of Israeli Products at Trader Joe’s in Albuquerque Backfires Big-time

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

By Andrew L. Jaffee

I found out about a so-called “boycott” of Israeli products at Trader Joe’s a few weeks ago. Of course, I went straight to the store to buy as many Israeli products as I could get my hands on. Guess what? Most of the Israeli food-stuffs had already sold out. Not really surprising when a “recent poll of American voters shows an astonishing 8-to-1 sympathy for Israel over the Palestinians,” and Bill Clinton stating recently, “I don’t know what we would have done without the Israeli field hospital in Haiti.”

When I asked the manager where I could specifically find Israeli products, he had an associate help me search what was left. As the manager and I talked, he commented, “Funny how these things work out,” regarding this and previous “boycotts.” In fact, a week later, Trader Joe’s had set up an extremely prominent display for Israeli couscous (see below the picture for more info):


Yeah. That “boycott” was a real success! This Israeli couscous display was put up soon after the “boycott.”

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The Worst Crisis in 35 Years?

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

by Daniel Pipes*

On the surface, that the Obama administration decided one fine day to pick a fight with the government of Israel looks like an unmitigated disaster for the Jewish state. What could be worse than its most important ally provoking the worst crisis (according to the Israeli ambassador to Washington) since 1975?

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Americans Love Israel Even More Than You Think

Friday, March 5th, 2010

By Barry Rubin

International relations isn’t a popularity contest. But public opinion polls can be useful in countering myths and examining the impact of policymaker, elite, and media campaigns on the masses.

Which brings us to Gallup’s latest poll measuring how Americans feel about different countries. The more one examines the results, the more amazing they are. Americans two favorites are, not surprisingly, fellow English-speakers Canada and the United Kingdom. Then come–Americans are very forgiving–two former enemies, Germany and Japan.

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Jew-Haters: Beware the American Public

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

By Andrew L. Jaffee

All you Jew-haters and Israel-haters (same thing) think you know what’s best for the rest of us, just like Hitler and Stalin did. The problem is that you’re completely out of step with the collective intelligence of the greatest nation in the world, the U.S.:

… The findings of the February 19, 2010 Gallup poll put President Barack Obama at odds with the US public, when it comes to attitudes toward the Jewish state, the Arab-Israeli conflict, Arabs, Muslims and Islamic terrorism.

For example, Israel maintains its traditional spot among the five most favored nations by 67 percent of the US public, despite Obama’s “even-handed” approach toward the Arab-Israeli conflict, in spite of his attempts to force Israel into sweeping concessions, and in defiance of the US “elite” media and academia.

On the other hand, the Palestinian Authority is ranked — along with Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan — at the bottom of the list, favored by only 20% of the US public.

According to an August 10, 2009 Rasmussen poll, Israel is ranked as the third most favorable ally (70%), preceded only by Canada and Britain. The low regard toward Egypt (39%) and Saudi Arabia (23%) demonstrates that Americans remain skeptical — at least since 9/11 — of Arabs and Muslims, even as these countries are portrayed by the media and the administration as supposedly moderate and pro-American.

Moreover, only 21% of adult Americans expect that the US relationship with the Muslim world will improve in a year, while 25% expect that it will get worse. …


Minority Advocates, Constituents Differ on Immigration: Zogby Poll Finds Wide Support for Enforcement, Lower Numbers

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

WASHINGTON (February 25, 2010) — While it is sometimes assumed that minorities, particularly Hispanics, favor increased immigration and legalization for illegal immigrants, a new Zogby survey finds that minority voters’ views are more complex. The poll of Hispanic, Asian-American, and African-American likely voters finds some support for legalization. But overall each of these groups prefers enforcement and for illegal immigrants to return home. Moreover, significant majorities of all three groups think that the current level of immigration is too high. These views are in sharp contrast to the leaders of most ethnic advocacy organizations, who argue for increased immigration and legalization of illegal immigrants. The survey used neutral language, avoiding such terms as “amnesty,” “illegal alien,” or “undocumented.”

The findings:

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Business and Labor on Immigration - Zogby Poll: DC Lobbyists Often Out of Step with Constituencies

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

WASHINGTON (February 3, 2010) — A new Zogby poll of senior executives, business owners, and members of union households finds that each of these groups thinks the best way to deal with illegal immigrants in the country is to enforce the law and cause them to return home. This is in stark contrast to lobbyists for large companies, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which argue for legalization. The findings of the survey are consistent with surveys done by the National Federation of Independent Business, which represents small enterprises, showing strong opposition to legalization. Among unions, the leadership strongly supports legalizing illegal immigrants, but this survey shows enforcement — not legalization — is by far the option favored by union members and their families. This survey of likely voters uses neutral language and includes 7,046 members of union households, 2,490 executives (e.g., CEOs, CFOs, VPs or department heads), and 9,990 small business owners.

Among the findings:

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The Decline of the Obama Administration: Massachusetts and the Middle East

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

By Barry Rubin

There is an iron rule in modern democratic politics that parties periodically ignore to their peril: if a party goes too far to an extreme–to the left, the right, or any other far-out viewpoint–the voters reject it. This is what’s now happening in the United States. One wonders whether, or when, it will happen in a number of European countries.

In the United States, the most obvious examples is when the Democrats went too far to the left with George McGovern and the Republicans went too far to the right with Barry Goldwater they suffered tremendous defeats. Many other examples can be cited from Europe, Israel, and other countries.

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Blogging in the Political Sphere

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Written by Stephanie Miles, a freelance writer for Guide to Online Schools, an accredited online degrees and online college website.

From major blogs like the Huffington Post and Daily Kos to the smaller, more niche sites like FiveThirtyEight, it is impossible to ignore the impact that bloggers have had on politics over the course of the past few years.

From 2003 to 2005, the number of Americans who reported that they regularly read one or more blogs increased from 11 percent to 58 percent, according to surveys done by the Pew Research Group. These figures reflect just how quickly the medium has expanded in a short period of time.

Still, despite the sheer number of niche websites that are run by individual writers out of their own homes, a relatively small number of bloggers still comprise the top echelon of online political power players — and research has found that less than a dozen bloggers account for 20 percent of all incoming links to political websites in The United States.

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Poll: Pew and Pulpit Disagree on Immigration - Zogby Survey Finds Religious Leaders and Members at Odds

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

WASHINGTON (December 29, 2009) - In contrast to many national religious leaders who are lobbying for increases in immigration, a new Zogby poll of likely voters who belong to the same religious communities finds strong support for reducing overall immigration. Moreover, members strongly disagree with their leaders’ contention that more immigrant workers need to be allowed into the country. Also, most parishioners and congregants prefer more enforcement to cause illegal workers to go home, rather than legalization of illegal immigrants, which most religious leaders prefer. The survey of Catholic, mainline Protestant, born-again Protestant, and Jewish voters used neutral language and was one of the largest polls on immigration ever done.

Among the findings:

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Some Common Sense in Egypt and Saudi Arabia

Friday, December 25th, 2009

by Daniel Pipes*

Invited recently by the newly formed Pechter Middle East Polls to ask three questions of 1,000 representative Egyptians and 1,000 urban Saudis, the Middle East Forum focused on Iran and Israel, the countries that most polarize the region. The results are illuminating.

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Minarets and the Concept of Reciprocity

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

By Phyllis Chesler

The mainstream media continue to decry the Swiss referendum on minarets. To date, The New York Times has published one editorial and five additional articles on the subject, including one today. Perhaps The Paper of Record views the 30% of the electorate who actually voted in Switzerland as traitors to their own multicultural, anti-racist, politically correct belief system.

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The Swiss Ban on Minarets: A Possible Turning Point

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

by Daniel Pipes*

On one level, the vote to ban minarets in Switzerland is a triviality. The constitutional amendment does not ban mosques, it does not pull down the country’s four existing minarets, nor does touch the practice of Islam in Switzerland or bear on the many issues concerning Swiss Muslims. In all likelihood, the political establishment in Bern, which abominates the amendment, will find some way to overturn it.

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Does Sharia Law Promote Women’s Rights?

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009

by Cinnamon Stillwell*

In thinking about women’s rights, sharia law, or Islamic law, doesn’t typically come to mind.

Yet, according to a survey conducted by Dalia Mogahed, executive director and senior analyst of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and appointee to President Obama’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the two are closely intertwined. Her survey alleges that a majority of Muslim women believe sharia law should either be the primary source or one source of legislation in their countries, while viewing Western personal freedoms as harmful to women.

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Jewish Self-haters or Victims?

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

by Steven Shamrak

I recently have received the following message from an Islamo-Fascist (according to the name, tone and manner of correspondence) reader of mine: “Please explain however whether Norman Finkelstein, Israel Shamir, Noam Chomsky, Walt & Mearsheimer, Illan Pappe, Gilad Atzmon or the thousands of other anti-Zionist Jews who are on your ’self-hating-Jew-list’ are also ‘Islamo-fascists’ or ‘Jew haters’?”

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Remembering 9/11, Eight Years Later

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

by Cinnamon Stillwell*

Eight years after the Islamic terrorist attacks of 9/11, it appears that America has largely drifted back into complacency. Certainly, many Americans still understand that the threat of repeated attacks remains real, but the sense of urgency has faded with time.

Meanwhile, the country’s current leadership and its supporters are inhabiting the willful blindness of a pre-9/11 mindset, if not acting as apologists for and, in some cases, active supporters of America’s enemies.

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