March 4, 2003 Contact: (212) 481-1500 Attn: NEWS EDITOR

71% of Americans Also Oppose Creating a Palestinian Arab State

NEW POLL: ISRAELIS OPPOSE CREATING A PALESTINIAN ARAB STATE BY A 2-TO-1
MARGIN

NEW YORK - A new poll has found that by a 2-to-1 margin, Israelis oppose the
creation of a Palestinian Arab state.

The poll, carried out on February 25, 2003 by the respected Geocartography
polling firm (at the request of the Ariel Center for Policy Research) asked:
"In light of the experience that has accumulated since the Oslo agreements,
do you support or oppose a Palestinian state?" 61% said they oppose creating
such a state; only 31% said they support it.

The results are consistent with two other recent polls taken in Israel by
the respected Hanoch Smith Institute and co-sponsored by the Zionist
Organization of America and IMRA. A November 2001 poll found 68% of Israeli
Jews believe that "regardless of the size or strength of a Palestinian
state, if one is established it will constitute a threat to the State of
Israel." A June 2002 poll found 80% of Israeli Jews oppose the proposal for
Israel to withdraw to the 1967 borders and create a Palestinian Arab state
in the vacated territories.

A February 2003 poll of the American public found similarly overwhelming
opposition to creating a Palestinian Arab state. A new national poll of
1,000 Americans by the respected polling firm of John McLaughlin and
Associates found that by a margin of 71% to 13%, Americans oppose the
creation of a Palestinian Arab state. By 61% to 19%, Americans believe that
the goal of such a state would be Israel's destruction.

The poll found that by a margin of almost six to one, Americans oppose
creating a Palestinian Arab state; by a margin of almost seven to one,
Americans oppose U.S. aid to the Palestinian Arabs; by a margin of four and
a half to one, Americans want Palestinian Arab killers of Americans handed
over to the U.S. for prosecution; by a margin of more than three to one,
Americans believe that the Palestinian Arabs' goal is the destruction of
Israel; by a margin of more than two to one, Americans believe that a
Palestinian Arab state will be a terrorist state; and by a margin of three
to one, Americans say that world leaders should not meet with Palestinian
Arab officials such as Abu Mazen, Yasir Arafat's second in command, who have
denied or distorted the Holocaust.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: "These comprehensive surveys,
done by leading pollsters in Israel and the United States, show that the
vast majority of Israelis and Americans understand that a Palestinian Arab
state would be a terrorist state that seeks Israel's destruction. President
Bush's support for creating a Palestinian Arab state is clearly at odds with
the views of the vast majority of Israelis and Americans."
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The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest
pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen
U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the
dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on
college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice
Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.