As the Jewish New Year approaches, a new survey shows Israelis entering the holiday with a gloomy view of the country’s condition but a slightly more hopeful outlook than last year.
According to the Israel Democracy Institute’s Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research, 71 percent of respondents said the national mood was “fairly poor” or “very poor.” That sentiment was more common among Jewish Israelis (73 percent) than Arab Israelis (58 percent). By political camp, the feeling of malaise was strongest on the Left (93 percent) and in the Center (89 percent), compared with 61 percent on the Right.
This holiday season, give to:
Truth and understanding
The Media Line's intrepid correspondents are in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Pakistan providing first-person reporting.
They all said they cover it.
We see it.
We report with just one agenda: the truth.
Religiosity also influenced perceptions. In every Jewish group except the national religious, at least half viewed the national mood as negative. Among the national religious, opinions were more evenly split.
Personal assessments were notably better than evaluations of the national climate. Overall, 49.5 percent rated their own mood ahead of the holiday as fairly or very good, while 48 percent said it was poor. Among Jews, 52 percent described themselves as personally upbeat compared with only 39 percent of Arab respondents. Political divisions were also evident: only 35 percent on the Right said their personal mood was poor, compared with 61 percent in the Center and 69 percent on the Left. The most positive results came from Haredi and national religious respondents, while secular Jews were least optimistic.
The survey indicated a shift in expectations for the coming year. Just under a quarter of the total sample (24.5 percent) predicted next year would be worse than the last, down sharply from 42 percent a year ago. Meanwhile, 33 percent said they believed the year ahead would be better, up from 23 percent, and 30 percent expected it to be similar to the past year. Among Jewish respondents, the Left leaned toward a darker outlook, the Center remained divided, and the Right expressed more hope.
The survey was conducted August 24–28 with 750 respondents—600 Jews and 150 Arabs—by internet and telephone, with a margin of error of ±3.58 percent.