- WASHINGTON (U.S. Newswire)
-- In a clear break with U.S. policy and in direct opposition to Congressional
attitudes, a majority of Americans now believe that Congress should hold
Israel accountable for maintaining programs of weapons of mass destruction
and for its human rights violations in the Palestinian Territories, according
to the Council for the National Interest.
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- A poll conducted by Zogby International for the Council
for the National Interest and released today shows that 56 percent of Americans
agree and 29 percent disagree that Congress should pass an Israel accountability
act on weapons of mass destruction and human rights violations. Nearly
one in three (30 percent) strongly agrees. Fifteen percent are not sure.
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- As might be expected, Muslims were strongly in favor
of such an act (72 percent), but so were a surprising percentage of Jews
(45 percent).
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- This flies in the face of repeated Congressional efforts,
spearheaded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other pro-Israeli
organizations, to penalize Arab governments for their support of Palestinian
independence and failure to rein in "terrorists." The Syria Accountability
Act, passed by Congress in 2003 and signed by President Bush on December
11 last year, promises economic and other sanctions against Syria for its
support of "terrorist" organizations and for its "failures"
to heed UN Security Council and Congressional resolutions.
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- Currently Congress is considering a "Saudi Arabia
Accountability Act," which promises sanctions if Saudi Arabia doesn't
stop the private financing of "terrorism" and doesn't cooperate
more fully with U.S. anti-terrorist efforts.
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- Support for an Israel accountability act came primarily
from Democrats and independents (61 percent), 18-29 year-olds (69 percent),
progressives (70 percent), and liberals (72 percent), but also a plurality
of Republican voters (46 percent). People with annual household incomes
of $25,000-$34,999 were strongly in favor (70 percent), and also those
with $75,000 and above (61 percent).
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- There has been much written on the support of Israel
by the conservative (Born Again) Christian group, but the Zogby poll showed
the opposite: 49 percent agreed with an Israel accountability act and 34
percent disagreed, although many held no opinion at all. A majority of
African Americans agreed with holding Israel accountable.
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- The Council for the National Interest, which is circulating
a petition to send the act to Congress and the President, is a D.C.- based
nonprofit organization founded in 1989 that promotes a balanced policy
toward the Middle East. A public forum on the Accountability Acts on March
17 received wide publicity. The draft act is available on the CNI Web site
( http://www.cnionline.org ), which has received thousands of signatures
since it was first circulated on the Internet April 2.
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- © 2004 U.S. Newswire
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