A recent survey conducted by Dr. Dalia Mor of the Department
of Behavior Sciences at the College of Business
Administration produced interesting findings in a number of
areas.
For instance, on the question of how much importance
Israelis attribute to upholding democracy and legal
institutions, most of the Jewish respondents answered that
the issue is of very little importance to them. In a ranking
of 15 important issues, preserving democracy and legal
institutions was 11th overall.
Arabs, on the other hand, ranked the issue of preservation
of democracy and legal institutions near the top of the
list, following reducing unemployment, improving the status
of the Arab population, education and promoting peace.
The issue of furthering peace was also left out of the ten
most important issues to Jewish respondents. Arab
respondents, however, ranked furthering peace in second
place on the list of the top 15 most important issues.
After all of the aggressive propaganda in the Israeli media
on the importance of democracy and legal institutions and
the need to advance the peace process, it seems the Israeli
public does not fall for propaganda easily. It realizes that
allusions to these issues refer to a left-wing
interpretation of these concepts--and the vast majority of
the nation's Jewish population opposes the Left.
The respondents were also asked to rate their fondness or
dislike of various population groups. The most interesting
figure that emerges from the survey is that the supposed
rift between secular Ashkenazim and Sephardim was not
reflected in the results. Eighty-nine percent of Sephardim
expressed fondness for secular Ashkenazim, and almost the
same percentage of secular Ashkenazim expressed fondness for
Sephardim.
The disaffection by Russian immigrants for Sephardim was
mutual. Sephardim expressed greater disdain for Leftists
than chareidim did, and among left-wing voters, the most
disliked group was the settlers, followed by chareidim and
right-wing voters.
For Jewish respondents as a whole, the most disliked group
is the Palestinians, followed by Israeli Arab citizens,
Leftists and settlers. Russian immigrants show the great
disdain, following Palestinians and Arab citizens, toward
the chareidim. The Sephardim feel the strongest animosity
toward Palestinians and Arabs, with Leftists in third place.
Among Arab respondents, the chareidim stir the greatest
antipathy, followed by settlers, right-wing voters and
Ashkenazim.
The Israeli media, which has invested such great efforts
into spreading hatred toward the chareidi public among all
sectors of the population, would do well to invest some time
contemplating this state of affairs.
