Dan Minette wrote: > >>> But, its not just that. A poll was taken among Palestinians, and 65% >>> supported the terrorist attacks. >>> >> I know you love statistics :-) but polls are *not* a good method for >> decision-making. >> > > The question I was adressing was whether the terrorist bombings reflected a > few individuals on the margins of society. When you couple this with the > deliberate release of terrorists by Arafat a year ago, and the political > power Hammas and other organizations that sponsor these bombings are now > getting, it is reasonable to assume that there is majority support for the > terrorist attacks in Palestine. > But this is relevant *only* if those 65% were potential suicide-attackers. Merely stating the opinion that they agreed with the terrorism doesn't make them terrorists.
> >> Probably a poll among USAers would make 95% of them wishing to >> nuke Bora-Bora O:-) > > Polls are a pretty good reflection of public sentiment on issues that they > have thought about for a while. Thus, candidates that favor those issues > that have 70% approval in public polls have a greater liklyhood to be > elected than those who oppose them. Exceptions occure when the public has a > lightly considered opinion...those can change on a dime, and when there are > a number of issues in a political platform, with a minority being unpopular > and a majority being popular. > Which makes the point that a poll about the opinions of the Palestinians is *irrelevant*, because they don't elect their representatives. What should be done is a poll among the *leaders* of the Palestinians - which would probably make 100 (N-1)/N % in favour of the attacks... [because AFAIK only Arafat explicitly declares himself against terrorism] Alberto Monteiro PS: are you on-line? I am in the chat-room now [00:26 GMT]
