Excellent analysis of these polling results, with 2 exceptions

Submitted by Joseph Klein (Canada), Dec 23, 2009 at 11:42

Surprised by your statement about "Drilling down into the survey numbers shows little demographic variation (by age, education, etc.). One difference runs along gender lines, with Egyptian females accepting a Jewish state of Israel more than Egyptian males, but just the reverse in Saudi Arabic, something not readily explainable." because your previous observation does indeed explain this result, namely "These results are in keeping with the more overtly religious nature of political life in Saudi Arabia than in Egypt."

Keep in mind that Islam is more onerous for females than males and females are expected to more dogmatically toe the line and brain-wash the young, thus a more religious population will also have the greater number of reactionary females.

As for why the Arab populations would rather see the USA strike Iran than Israel, that's easy too - namely an American strike is less likely to result in regional strife, thus Saudis and Egyptians would be safer if a distant power did the dirty work.

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