93.5% of Jews Say Goldstone Report is Biased
(IsraelNN.com) Seventy-nine percent of Israel's Jewish public disagrees with the Goldstone report's claim that the IDF committed war crimes in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, according to a new survey by Tel Aviv University. Only 5% of the Arab sector disagreed with the war crimes claim.
The poll found that Israeli Jews familiar with the Goldstone report's main conclusion were almost unanimous in the opinion that the report was biased against the IDF: 61% of the Jews were aware of Goldstone's major finding, and 93.5% of these believed the report was biased. This opinion crossed political lines between Right and Left. The Jewish public is divided on the question of whether the government was right not to cooperate with the Goldstone committee. 46% thought it was right to do so, 20% believed it was mistaken and 34% did not know. The pollsters estimated that those who favored cooperation with the committee did so because they believed that cooperation with the committee could have softened its findings.
Among the Arab public in Israel, only 6% thought Israel's decision not to cooperate was right. 22% said it was wrong and about 70% had no opinion.
Asked whether Hamas's transfer of a video of soldier-hostage Gilad Shalit improved the chances of success in the negotiations for his freedom, 50% of the Jewish public said that it did not increase the chances, but nor did it decrease them. 37% said it increased the chances and 4% said it reduced them.
