Poll finds Israeli Jews feel slighted by world

Following reports of calls by international figures to boycott Israel, the poll asked respondents to define the Jewish State's relations with the countries of the world in general.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Meeting of the UN Security Council (photo credit: REUTERS)
Meeting of the UN Security Council
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Israel has poor relations with the international community, which is at fault for holding the Jewish state to an unfair standard. That is what a large majority of Jewish Israelis believe, according to the monthly Peace Index poll that the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University released Tuesday.
Following reports of calls by international figures to boycott Israel, the poll asked respondents to define the Jewish state’s relations with the countries of the world. It also asked whether respondents agreed that the world demands more from Israel in terms of moral behavior than it does from other countries that are in conflict situations.
A large margin defined Israel’s relations with the world as not good – 68.8 percent – compared to 28.8% who called Israel’s international relations good and 2.6% who declined to respond.
Interestingly, among Israeli Arabs, the numbers were vastly different, with only 20.7% characterizing Israel’s relations with the world as not good, 58.2% calling them good, and 21.2% saying they did not know or declining to answer.
Nearly 80% of Jewish Israelis agreed with the statement that the world makes demands for moral behavior on Israel that it does not make on other countries that are in situations of conflict.
Only 26.6% disagreed, and 2.5% did not know or declined to respond.
Israeli Arabs were again much more optimistic about Israel’s foreign relations, with only 25.3% agreeing that Israel is held to an unfair standard, 26% disagreeing, and 48.7% not knowing or declining to answer.
Majorities of both Jewish and Arab respondents said they would not cooperate with an organized consumer boycott of the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria: 79% of Jews and 59% of Arabs. At the same time, however, 75% of the Jewish respondents indicated a lack of desire to live in settlements in the territories, even if they could receive improved housing at a low price. In addition, 48% of Jewish Israelis stated that they had not visited any homes in Judea and Samaria during the last five years.
The poll also asked respondents about reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini during her visit last month that he was prepared to negotiate the borders of settlement blocs. While 35.8% of Jewish respondents said the reports indicated that Netanyahu was prepared to consider a peace agreement that would entail giving up the settlements beyond the blocs, 52.8% said they did not believe the prime minister was prepared to do so.
As has been the case month after month, the Peace Index poll found that both Jewish and Arab Israelis remain overwhelmingly supportive of holding peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, even though they do not believe such talks will lead to peace in the coming years between Israel and the Palestinian people.
Additionally, a considerable majority (62%) of the Jewish public is not satisfied with the distribution of cabinet posts in the new government, and 71% of the Jewish population thinks that the chances of the Zionist Union Party joining the government are slim. Among people who voted for Zionist Union in the last election, 87% believe that the party is not headed toward joining the coalition.
The poll of 600 respondents who constituted a representative sample of the country’s adult population was conducted on June 4-5. The maximum error margin for a sample of this size is ±4.1%.