67% of Israelis fear being hurt in wave of terror

Poll shows most Israelis believe Palestinian leadership planned the violence.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Updated: DECEMBER 9, 2015 05:53
A Palestinian woman argues with an Israeli border policeman during a protest against Jewish settlements in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh (photo credit: REUTERS)
A Palestinian woman argues with an Israeli border policeman during a protest against Jewish settlements in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The number of Israelis who fear they or someone important to them will be attacked in the current wave of terrorism went up 10 percentage points in the last month, the Israeli Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University’s Peace Index poll, released Tuesday, indicated.
The poll found that 67 percent of Israelis fear being hurt in a terrorist attack, as opposed to 57% last month.
The amount of Israeli Arabs who fear for their own or their loved ones’ safety declined in the last month from 78% to 68%.
Most Israelis (61%) believe the current wave of terrorism was planned and guided by Palestinian leadership, while only 21% believe it was spontaneous.
The poll also indicated that members of left-wing parties are more likely than members of other parties to believe the violence broke out spontaneously – Meretz 41%, Zionist Union 37%.
Most Israeli Arabs (59%) view the wave of terrorism as a popular effort, not organized by Palestinian leaders.
Over half of Jewish respondents (54%) agree with security officials’ label of the wave of terrorism as a “limited uprising,” not an Intifada, while 42.9% disagree. Among Israeli Arabs, 46% agree and 40% do not.
There is broad agreement among Jewish Israelis (71%) that signing a peace treaty with the Palestinians would not bring an end to Palestinian terrorism against Jews; 41.8% said they were certain it would not, while 29.3% said they think it would not.
Israeli Arabs believed the opposite, with 72% saying a peace agreement would end terrorism.
The Peace Index also asked Israelis about the Islamic State.
Less than half (45%) of Jewish Israelis said they think the likelihood of destroying ISIS is high, and even if that happens, according to 58% of Jewish Israelis, it would not eradicate radical Islam.
Conversely, most Israeli Arabs (61%) think the West is highly likely to defeat ISIS and 55% think such a defeat would be a fatal blow to radical Islam.
Most Jewish Israelis (59%) think that most Muslims do not support ISIS and only one percent fewer think most Israeli Arabs do not support the group. The vast majority of Israeli Arabs (87%) said most Muslims do not support ISIS, and even more (89%) said the same of Israeli Arabs.
Only 10% of Israelis said they are sure most Israeli Arabs do support ISIS, though most voters for United Torah Judaism, Shas and Yisrael Beytenu (64%, 56.5% and 55% respectively) agreed with the assertion.
Another topic in December’s Peace Index was the public image of MKs.
Less than 1% (.9%) of Jewish Israelis think Knesset members set a good example to the public through their behavior.
Over three-quarters of Jewish Israelis (77%) and most (62.5%) Israeli Arabs think the personal quality of MKs has declined in recent years.
Only 28.6% of respondents said MKs work hard and do their jobs well, though respondents have a 54.4% rate of pride in MKs from the party for which they voted. Voters for three parties are more likely to not be proud of their MKs’ work: Yisrael Beytenu (62%), Likud (52%) and Kulanu (51%).
The poll was conducted by telephone from November 30-December 1 by the Midgam Research Institute, with 600 respondents constituting a representative national sample of the Israeli adult population. The margin of error is 4.1% at a confidence level of 95%.