News Brief23:33 PM

(IsraelNN.com) The vast majority of PA Arabs support the terror attack on Jerusalem's Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva in which eight students were executed earlier this month, according to a new poll cited in the New York Times on Wednesday. According to the poll, 84 percent of those surveyed "stood behind" the shooting attack. In addition, 64% supported the firing of Kassam rockets at Negev towns.

The survey also indicated that the majority of PA Arabs would choose Hamas "prime minister" Ismail Haniyeh (47%) over PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas (46%) if elections were called now, and that three-quarters of PA Arabs favored terminating negotiations between Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.  Three months ago, Abbas was ahead 56 percent to 37 percent.

"The anger that this poll is registering is about equal to that at the very height of the second intifada," pollster Khalil Shikaki was quoted as saying. Never before, he said, had a majority favored an end to negotiations or the shooting of rockets at Israel. He added that he had never seen such a high level of support for an act of violence in all his 15 years of polling in Ramallah.  Shikaki said the results reflected a sense of despair and a desire for revenge following recent Israeli attacks in Gaza and Bethlehem. “I am very worried about what is coming," he said.