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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (89961)	12/9/2004 6:55:03 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793964

The Arab Street By Russell Roberts on Terrorism - Cafe Hayek I have argued here and here that opinion surveys of people living under tyranny or fear of reprisal are not very representative of what such people really think. The Jerusalem Post now reports that with the death of Arafat, Palestinian popular opinion has changed markedly in a very short period of time. The death of Yasser Arafat has left most Palestinians optimistic regarding the future and opposed to the continuation of terror attacks on Israel, according to a public opinion poll published Wednesday by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center. A majority of 51.8 percent of the Palestinians polled said that they were opposed to "military operations" against Israeli targets and consider them harmful to Palestinian national interests, compared with 26.9% last June. Only 41.1% of the Palestinians believe that terrorist attacks should continue compared with 65.4% last June. So have Palestinians become less violent? My claim is that perhaps they were less violent before but it was dangerous to admit it to a stranger doing a survey. Or perhaps they are equally interested in terrorism as a political tool but now find it inappropriate to say so. Without more information, it is impossible to know. Surveys of people living under tyranny make good copy. They don't tell us more about the incentives people face than their preferences.