BOSTON – You've seen the crowd and heard the rhetoric. But how is the campus turmoil over the Gaza war affecting public opinion?
Dritan Nesho, co-director of the national Harvard Center for American Political Studies (CAPS)/Harris Poll, said monthly surveys have found that “support for Israel is fairly consistent.” However, there are not that many.
Most people believe anti-Semitism is a problem on campus
The April survey yielded some surprising results:
59% of Muslim students believe they face Islamophobia on campus, while 69% believe there is high levels of anti-Semitism on campus. “The numbers are not stratospherically high, and even as recently as a year ago, they are very high,” Nesho said. Two-thirds of today's voters believe it is unsafe to be openly Jewish on college campuses. The majority voice supported suspending students and teachers who called for violence against Jews, and many onlookers heard it in the protesters' common chants. “The majority of the population and the majority of voters do not agree with the protesters,” Nesho said. Of the 64% who think there is a “problem” with what higher education institutions are teaching their students these days, 40% perceive racial tensions as a theory, while 34% believe political diversity 33% lamented the promotion of anti-Americanism, and 27% cited teachings that promote anti-Semitism.
Public opinion is against Hamas
Every time a protester praises or excuses Hamas, even if it's an isolated incident, it's a public relations disaster, Nesho said.
“Public opinion is pro-Israel, public opinion is pro-Palestinian, but public opinion is anti-Hamas,” he pointed out.
Do you remember the old Beatles song “Revolution”? There was a line in it that said, “If you go out with a picture of Chairman Mao, you won't get along with anyone anyway.”
Lennon and McCartney seem to have had the foresight to replace Hamas with Mao Zedong as “from the river to the sea.”
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