Trends in American attitudes toward the PLO and the palestinians

This article presents a critical analysis of public opinion polls on the PLO and the Palestinians having been conducted in the United States since the middle 1970s. The analysis deals with four issues: the image of the PLO and the Palestinians; the role of the PLO in the political process; possible solutions to the Palestinian problem; and the effects of the 1982 Israeli War in Lebanon on all these issues. The opinion data are explored within the context of significant events. Despite widespread belief, this article shows that the war did not change the basic American attitudes toward the Palestinian problem. It also exposes certain weaknesses of polling and demonstrates how different contexts and phrasing of questions combine to yield different and even confusing results.