New polls show that a majority of American Jews are critical of Israels policies and believe that Israel should reconsider its policies toward Palestine.One poll published last week by Jewish Council for Public Affair (JCPA) surveyed 552 rabbis. Ninety three percent of them expressed critical opinions of Israels controversial policies.
Eighty percent of them believed that Israel should stop settlement construction on the West Bank, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
Only twenty percent agreed that the Israel wants peace with Palestinians.
In addition, a Pew Research Center poll which surveyed 3,475 American Jews, validated the JCPA findings.
According to the poll, about 44 percent said that the continuation of Israeli settlement construction on the West Bank hurts Israeli interests.
In addition, 48 percent said Israel is not sincere in its efforts to pursue peace talks with Palestinians.
According to Haaretz, the results of the polls show that most American Jews like many other people in the world see Israel through the prism of its conflict with neighbors.
Most American Jews do not feel comfortable with Israeli policies on the conflict and its resolution, the Israeli newspaper added.
It also mentioned that US Jews are more critical of Israel than what is publicly perceived.
The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.
More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.
The United Nations and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied land.
Israel had previously put a freeze on settlement construction last August in order to allow the so called peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel to take place, however since the resumption of the negotiations, Israel has approved hundreds of settlements throughout the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
By Press TV
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