Week PR Losses funding the centerpiece of the PR campaign, a series of upcoming national ads on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. "The time for talking about the problem has come to an end, and the time for seeking a solution is long overdue," Harris said. TV is "where the battleground really is," he added. "The way to shape it is with ads." The AJCommittee was the first to sign on sto the new strategy. Others include the United Jewish Communities, which is the umbrella of local Jewish federations, and Israel 21C, a group of pro-Israel high-tech entrepreneurs in California's Silicon Valley. So far, the AJCommittee has supplied a portion of the $700,000 required for the initial polling and for cable TV ads that have run in recent months in the Washington, D.C., area. The rest of the money has come from private family foundations and donors, with Mizrahi, who initiated the project, bearing the initial $50,000 tab. Twice this month, the AJCommittee and the poll- sters sought to win wider support for the new strate- gy in meetings with leaders of Jewish groups, includ- ing the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the American Jewish Congress, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, the American Zionist Movement and CAMERA, the media watchdog group. They also met in Jerusalem in recent weeks with senior Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, army officials, government spokes- people and academics. More meetings are being planned with groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby. The mid-July surveys measure attitudes about Israel and the Palestinians among five different groups: "opinion elites," general voters, Jews, African Americans and college students. While the full results are being closely guarded, memos by Greenberg and Luntz summarize the find- ings and outline a communications strategy meant to win back American hearts and minds for Israel. While backing for Israel stands at 42 percent and support for the Palestinians at just 10 percent, the other half of respondents have pulled away from the conflict, maintaining that they support bothsides equally or neither side at all. Opinion leaders — high-income, highly educated, media-savvy people — are evenly split between Polls show lower Israel support, as many in U.S. blame both sides. that has endured for thousands of years and could last centuries more without peace. JOE BERKOFSKY Jewish Telegraphic Agency New York City Public Relations mericans tired of Mideast violence increasingly blame Israel and the Jewish organizations hope to fight that ambivalence Palestinians equally and dismiss each with a multimillion-dollar national ad campaign side's cause as "hopeless," according to a emphasizing Israeli democracy and its shared values series of new polls of American views of the conflict. with the United States, Israel's willingness to make Overall, 42 percent of Americans support Israel, peace and its importance as a strategic American ally. while only 10 percent support the Palestinians. Yet about the same amount surveyed say they remain The forces behind what's being called the Israel neutral in the conflict, favoring neither side or back- PR Campaign are Democratic political consultant ing both equally — a marked erosion of longstand- Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, Republican strategist Frank ing support for Israel. Luntz and Greenberg. In addition, a majority want the Bush administra- They're hoping to convince American Jewish - tion to pressure both" Israeland the Palestinians to organizations and the Israeli government to adapt negotiate, and they overwhelmingly support a two- their communications strategy. state solution to the Mideast conflict, even if it The executive director of the American Jewish includes the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees Committee, David Harris, said the organization is to Israel. prepared to make "a significant commitment" in These assessments arise from a series of surveys last month that show public sup- port for Israel slipping from 50 percent less than a year ago, turning instead to apathy or disgust with violence by both sides. "The moral edge that Israel has always enjoyed is that it has always appeared strongly desirous of peace and generally willing to accept the partition of the land of Israel," said Steven Cohen, a professor 40%— at the Melton Centre at Hebrew . University in Jerusalem. "Insofar as we • 20%- don't look like we are committed to peace c or interested in a two-state solution, we • leaders suffer in the eyes of public opinion." Democrats independents Moderate Conservative In the surveys, taken by prominent Republicans Republicans Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg A far higher percentage of Conservative Republicans — and funded by several Jewish organiza- both in the general public and among opinion leaders tions and private donors, many — are supportive of Israel in the conflict than are Americans said the conflict seems "hope- Democrats, Independents or moderate Republicans. less." They characterize it as a "holy war" A , SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL - Source: Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner Research Inc. ALL NEW 2002 C70 CONVERTIBLE MICHIGAN'S #1 VOLVO SPRING TIME IMMEDIATE DELIVERY 200 NEW 39 MONTH LEASN- 9 4 0garg.040.0e1 8/23 2002 18 LOW AS MO. *39,000 miles, 20c per mile for overage. 5575.00 refundable security deposit. 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