Poll: US public favors united Jerusalem

According to a poll conducted among 1000 respondents by McLaughlin& Associates for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 52% of Americans would be more likely to support a presidential candidate who is in favor of a united Jerusalem and defensible borders for Israel. 13% said these positions would make them less likely to support such a candidate. 21% said a candidate's position on these issues would make no difference to them.

Reminded that the tomb of Joseph in Nablus, the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, and the ancient synagogue in Jericho were "ransacked or desecrated" by the Palestinians since the start of the current violence, 60 % of the respondents said these events have made them "less trusting" of giving Jerusalem's Christian holy sites to the Palestinians. On another issue, 73% of the respondents agreed with the following statement: "Under a future Arab-Israeli peace agreement, Jerusalem should remain under Israeli sovereignty with freedom of religion for Christians, Muslim, Jews and all other faiths." Only nine percent of the respondents disagreed.

"The most astounding element of the survey is the massive, across the board support for Jerusalem remaining united under Israeli sovereignty when the question makes reference to religious freedom," Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said "Most Americans probably feel that were Israel to give up holy sites to the Palestinians it would be like turning it over to the Taliban."

The poll also found that 58% of the respondents became more sympathetic to Israel's struggle against terrorism following the 9/11 attacks in the US, while 24% said the attacks made no difference in their sympathy toward Israeli actions, and 13% said the attacks made them less sympathetic.

"I think the survey demonstrates the enormous emotional attachment of potential American voters to the issue of Israel, and particularly to preserving religious freedom in Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty," Gold said. "I think that what we see in the survey is that the Israeli factor is one of several very important emotional issues for large sectors of the American public."


The survey, conducted on Tuesday, had a 2-3% margin of error.

Read the full article at the Jerusalem Post Internet Edition