dagblog - Comments for "Seventy Percent of Americans View Israel Favorably"

Only 70% of Americans view

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:05:12 +0000

In reply to Seventy Percent of Americans View Israel Favorably

Only 70% of Americans view the Jewish State of Israel favorably? I would have guessed a higher number.

It is ridiculous to go from there to a claim that this proves anything at all about the powers behind formation of our foreign policy and stunningly wrong headed to claim that that approval means any discussion about the powers which control or influence that policy is "evil" regardless the opinion held going in or coming out of that discussion.

Some Americans would love for discussions of extremely important and emotionally loaded subjects to be guided by fair minded common sense and respect for simple logic. That, friends, actually is a fact. The false assumptions stipulated here by the presenter as "facts" which should guide and limit further conversation on the subject probably explain why there is so little response.

I like Iraq Veterans Against

Aaron Carine — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 23:44:48 +0000

In reply to This might have something to

I like Iraq Veterans Against the War, but Prysner is wrong about one thing: Al Qaeda are real enemies.

This might have something to

cmaukonen — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 06:11:05 +0000

In reply to Seventy Percent of Americans View Israel Favorably

This might have something to do with it.

With that almost-unmentioned war far away still grinding on - to the tune of $2 billion a week and untold death and suffering on all sides - the extraordinary Winter Soldier testimony of Mike Prysner, Iraq Veteran Against the War and founder of March Forward!, on realizing the enemy is a blinding racism that makes occupation and destruction of another country seem acceptable, and "the real terrorist was me." Brave man; his full testimony here.

"Our real enemy is not the ones living in a distant land whose names or policies we don't understand. The real enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it's profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us." - Mike Prysner

Ok, I was curious who are the

artappraiser — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 16:06:11 +0000

In reply to Passport @ ForeignPolicy.com

Ok, I was curious who are the other "best friends" on the list and I found it:

Q9. - AND WHICH ONE COUNTRY WOULD YOU NAME AS AMERICA'S BEST ALLY IN THE WORLD TODAY?

54.0 ENGLAND/GR BRITAIN
15.9 ISRAEL
8.7 CANADA
2.3 CHINA
1.9 FRANCE
0.9 GERMANY
0.7 RUSSIA
0.6 ALL OF EUROPE
0.6 AUSTRALIA
0.5 EGYPT
0.5 JAPAN
0.2 INDIA
0.1 HOLLAND
0.1 GREECE
0.1 IRAN
0.1 ITALY
0.1 KENYA
0.1 MEXICO
0.1 NORWAY
0.1 SAUDI ARABIA
0.1 SOUTH AFRICA
12.3 DON'T KNOW

But Passport is right that there's some other interesting stuff; I got kick out of a couple of answers to the following question:

Q7. - WHAT DO YOU THINK PRESENTS THE LARGEST THREAT TO AMERICAN NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS TODAY?

The top answer was

17.1% TERRORISTS

but there were also these two amusingly partisan answers to that:

8.2% BARACK OBAMA/ADMIN
1.3% MITT ROMNEY

"Barack Obama/Admin" actually made #2 with that percentage, #3 and # 4 were "Middle East" @ 6.5% and "Islam/Fundament/Milit" @ 6.4%.

And then this one, which tells me that Michele Bachman types are not getting their message across

0.5% COMMUNISTS/SOCIALISTS

Passport @ ForeignPolicy.com

artappraiser — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 15:38:54 +0000

In reply to Seventy Percent of Americans View Israel Favorably

Passport @ ForeignPolicy.com has more on the poll, focusing on "who's our worst foe?" but also talks about some other points, and has a link to the poll results at Foreign Policy Initiative, which I haven't looked at yet.

From a quick google, it seems like everyone calls Foreign Policy Initiative non-partisan, including Wikipedia, but I also note there that the Board of Directors consists of Eric Edelman, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, and Dan Senor so I am thinking to suspect a some neo-con skew to the polling and poll questions, and a skim of the summary results says I'm right on that. Still, Foreign Policy's Passport says it's definitely worth checking out in more detail and I trust their editorial.

If we stick to recent years,

Aaron Carine — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 14:06:55 +0000

In reply to Seventy Percent of Americans View Israel Favorably

If we stick to recent years, I'm part of that seventy percent(I don't think things were always as good as they are now, though).