Saturday, November 23, 2002

Arab, Jewish Americans Agree Widely on Solution
Of 500 people polled at random from each community, 52 percent of U.S. Jews and 79 percent of Arab Americans said they would support a settlement that led to two independent and secure states with a common border that would be defined roughly by Israel's 1967 frontiers, with a shared capital.

Asked whether they agreed or disagreed that Palestinians have a right to live in a ''secure and independent state of their own'', 85.5 percent of Jews agreed, as did 95.6 of Arab-Americans. Posed the same choice about the right of Israelis to an independent and secure state, 96.6 percent of Jews agreed, as did 95.4 percent of Arab-Americans.

The survey found a high level of support for the Taba framework, whose main elements include a two-state solution, the evacuation of most Jewish settlements from the occupied territories, the establishment of a border roughly along the pre-1967 frontiers, a Palestinian right of return only inside a new Palestinian state, and a shared capital in Jerusalem.

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