Israelis Are Liberal

The new Peace Index is out, for the month of April.

Main findings:

Peace is in third place for the Jewish citizens:-

The Jewish public ranks the goal of reducing socioeconomic gaps first (41%). This is followed by creating affordable housing solutions (16%), reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians (15%), improving Israel’s standing in the international arena (13%), and increasing Israel’s military power (12%). For the Arab public, the most important goals are peace with the Palestinians (34%) and reducing socioeconomic gaps (28%).

On the "Israeli-Palestinian issue":-

In response to a separate question about the urgency of achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace , 58% of the Jewish respondents and 51% of the Arab respondents defined the issue as urgent or very urgent. At the same time, 58% of the Jewish interviewees and 61% of the Arab ones saw no chance of ending the conflict in accordance with the "two states for two peoples" formula at the present time.

And there was this question: “In your opinion, is ‘Hatikvah’ suitable or unsuitable to serve as the national anthem of the State of Israel, in which approximately one-fifth of citizens are Arabs?”

And the results?

An overwhelming majority of the Jews (80%) responded that the anthem is suitable. The only group that was divided on this question was the haredim, 47% of whom thought it was suitable while 40% thought it was not.


At the same time, a majority (62%) of the Jewish public offered the opinion that Arab citizens of Israel who hold an official position should not be required to sing “Hatikvah” at public events. Only among Yisrael Beiteinu voters did a 59% majority say Arabs should be required to sing “Hatikvah” at public events, while Jewish Home (Habayit Hayehudi) voters were evenly split at 45%–45%. As for the Arab respondents, 76% thought there was inappropriate representation of the different parts of Israeli society in the torch-lighting ceremony. Ninety percent answered that “Hatikvah” is not suitable to serve as the country’s anthem, and 91% are sure or think that an Arab citizen of Israel who holds an official position should not be required to sing “Hatikvah” at public events.

Israelis are quite liberal, no?

Poor Peter Beinart.



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