Moshe Arens commissioned Poll: "56% of Israelis back settlement construction in the West Bank"

In the PULSE, here

"This morning, an Associated Press article, featured prominently by Ha'aretz online and others, reports that a newly released poll shows that 56% of Israelis back settlement construction in the West Bank:

The poll by the Maagar Mohot Polling Institute comes just ahead of Netanyahu's major policy speech on Sunday that is expected to address a growing divide with Washington.
U.S. President Barack Obama has said he wants to aggressively pursue Mideast peacemaking, and the halt of all building on land the Palestinians claim for their future state has been a key U.S. demand.

Fifty-six percent of those surveyed said Netanyahu should not consent to the American demand to halt all settlement construction, as opposed to 37 percent who said he should. Fifty percent said failure to comply would not provoke a crisis with the U.S., while 32 percent said they thought the settlement freeze was a make or break issue for Washington.

Maagar Mohot also found in a separate poll that two-thirds of Israelis have little appetite for dismantling West Bank settlements. Thirty-six percent oppose any evacuation as part of a final peace deal and 30 percent said only a small number should be dismantled.

Both surveys polled 503 people and had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

Unfortunately, the AP story does not report that the poll was commissioned by the right wing "Ariel University Center of Samaria," a college based in the West Bank, headed by former Likud Foreign Minister Moshe Arens.

Following the speech last week, Arens, an avowed proponent of the settler movement, told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine, "We must strengthen the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria even beyond their natural growth rates.” Clearly Arens, his university and its pollster are seeking to advance the agenda of the settler movement. Ori Nir has more about how the questions used in the poll were misleading.

Just last week, a Dahaf Institute poll following President Obama's speech in Cairo indicated that 56% of Israelis believe Netanyahu should "acquiesce to Obama's demands." The Dahaf poll also indicated that 70% believe illegal outposts should be evacuated, 52% believe settlement construction should be freeze, and 55% believe Israel should agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Put in perspective, today's report shouldn't be taken seriously. .."