43% Americans See Israel as Threat to World Peace

ADL Poll: 43% of Americans See Israel as Threat to World Peace

GAZA -- Despite the vast support and bias of the US administration to the Israeli government and the swift adoption of its plans and policies in the Palestinian territories, a recent poll published by a Jewish group operating in the United States revealed that a substantial ratio of American citizens view Israel as a threat to world peace.

The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organization claiming to aim for stropping the defamation of the Jewish people, presented the results of a survey of American attitudes towards several countries around the world, especially the Middle East, in which they said that 43% of the American people consider Israel as a threat to world peace.

The poll was conducted by a firm in Boston for the ADL, and was based phone interviews with 1,200 American adults, in which they ranked Israel as the eighth most threatening country to world peace, after North Korea, Iraq and Iran. The poll was presented during a national security conference in the Israeli city of Herzliya, attended by Israeli leaders and world figures.

The poll also showed about 40% of Americans sympathize primarily with Israel in the Middle East conflict, compared to just 15% that sympathizes with Palestinians, numbers Abraham Foxman, ADL's director, said have remained consistent since 1991, AP reported.

However, the poll did not gauge opinion about the Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territories, of which some were sharply criticized by the US administration as well as foreign governments, such as the settlement building in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the controversial Apartheid wall.

Last month's "Eurobarometer" poll conducted by the European Union revealed that 59% of the Europeans consider Israel as a threat to world peace, ranking it as number one.

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