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In Stormy Middle East, Israelis Look Inward

Poll shows economy is highest priority, contradictory attitudes on democracy

Israelis are shrugging off the country’s growing diplomatic isolation and security threats from Turkey and Egypt to focus instead on their country’s social and economic problems, a wide ranging survey of people’s attitudes released on Sunday showed.

“Narrowing socioeconomic gaps” and “helping young people to afford an apartment of their own” were ranked as very important or quite important goals for the country by more than 90% the respondents, putting them at the top of the agenda. “Strengthening Israel’s military capability” came fourth (86%) and “achieving peace with the Palestinians” sixth (76.6%), according to the Israel Democracy Index.

Tamar Hermann, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, which conducted the poll, said economic and social issues jumped to the top of Israelis’ concerns over the summer as the country was gripped by mass protests over the cost of living. She was able to detect the change by comparing the main survey, which was conducted in March, with a follow-up poll completed last week.

“There was a tremendous increase in those who said that social-economic issues should come first among all topics on government agenda – it jumped from 28% who thought most important in match to over 40% right now,” Hermann told The Media Line. “We also saw a big decrease in strengthening of military capabilities as a priority issue.”

The annual poll comes as Israel faces major crises outside its borders. Relations with Turkey and Egypt, its two main allies, have unraveled, while a Palestinian bid to have its statehood recognized by the United Nations has elicited wide global support despite the Israeli government’s firm opposition. Neighboring Syria is wracked by violence.

In spite of the threats, the highest percentage of respondents (41%) termed Israel’s situation “so-so,” while the remainder were divided almost evenly between those who felt that it was good (27.8%) or bad (29.7%).  With close to 69% of Israelis describing the overall situation of Israel as so-so or better, that was the lowest in three years, but less of a drop than Hermann said she would have expected under the circumstances.

She ascribed the relatively cheery view of the country’s situation to a strong economy and to the absence of Palestinian attacks in the last several years. Between March and September, she noted, fewer Israelis assigned high priority to strengthening the army.

“This last survey was solicited only last week, which means they could see what’s happening, but it seems from military point of view they believe that things are being taken care of quite effectively,” she said.
Those priorities will likely take on critical importance in the next several weeks as the government decides how to boost social spending in response to the summer protests. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said he is willing to shift money into education, health and other items, but refuses to raise taxes or the budget deficit. That may leave him little choice but to dig into the defense budget at a time when the army says Israel faces an increasingly hostile environment.

The Democracy Index found high levels of support for the principle of democracy, with 81.8% saying it is the best form of government. Only a minority of Israelis (24.4%) thought the country was too democratic while far more (39.3%) thought that the country needed more democracy, the poll showed.

Among Israeli Arabs, who make up about a fifth of the population, 63.3% said Israeli society isn’t democratic enough, almost twice the rate among the Jewish population. In fact, Israeli Arabs differed significantly from the Jewish majority in many of their views, rating a Palestinians peace agreement and improving relations between Israel’s Jews and Arabs as their highest priorities. They expressed less trust than Jewish Israelis in nearly all the country’s institutions.

However, in regard to democracy, fewer Israelis expressed support for specific democratic values than they did for the principle of democracy. 

“Most people have contradictory attitudes. On one level, Israelis have been taught to see Israel as democracy, so when asked they say, ‘Yes I believe in democracy.’ But civic education is very, very weak here. People learn very little about what democracy means,” said Gershom Gorenberg, whose book The Unmaking of Israel, due out in November, contends that the nation’s policies are undermining its democratic institutions.

Only 67.9% of the Jewish public expressed support for full equality of rights between Jews and Arabs in Israel, while 77.8% of Jewish respondent agreed with the statement that decisions crucial to the state on matters of peace and security should be made exclusively by the Jewish majority.

Even on issues of governance, economy and society, which don’t involve Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians and Arab world, 69.5% of the Jewish respondents said the decisions should be made only by the Jewish majority, according to the poll.

“Israeli society hasn’t really made the transition from national liberation movement to a state,” Gorenberg told The Media Line. “You have a lot people who think State of Israel still represents Jewish liberation rather than all the citizens of the state of Israel.”

Asked about defining Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, 46.1% of the Jews answering the survey said they regarded both qualities as equally important.  In second place, 29.5% said “Jewish state” aspect is the more important element, while the “democratic state” aspect was third with 22.9%.

The issue of Israel’s Jewishness has emerged as an issue with the Palestinians who have rejected Netanyahu’s demand that they recognize Israel as a Jewish state as pre-condition for resuming talks. Many Israeli Arabs have argued that Israel cannot be a fully democratic state until it abandons its Jewish character to become a secular democracy.