Shimon Peres thought they were like perfume: sweet and enticing but poison to drink. Binyamin Netanyahu proved them wrong in 1996 as did Menachem Begin in 1981.
What are they?
Polls.
Israel, it seems, is now between two polls.
The first is a Gallup Poll of Egyptian public opinion.
Among the finds:
...religion remains important to most Egyptians (96%), and 92% say they have confidence in religious institutions.
As regards to America''s application of pressure on Israel with respect to settlements, 68% desire US pressure on Israel to stop the expansion of Israeli residential locations in Judea and Samaria.
The second poll indicates that:
77% of Israelis oppose going back to pre-''67 lines...85 percent and 75%, respectively, recognized the importance of maintaining a united Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty within the framework of any final peace deal and opposed transferring the Temple Mount to Palestinian control even if the Western Wall were to remain in Israeli hands. Regarding the Jordan Valley, 84% believe Israel must maintain control of the strategic border with Jordan even in the framework of a final peace agreement. The poll found that 60% of Israelis believed that defensible borders would ensure security more than a peace agreement would, and 82% considered security concerns more important than a peace deal.I am wondering: with a margin of error, even a generous one, these figures seem to indicate a position that runs counter to the liberal/progressive preaching bandied about by Tom Friedman, Roger Cohen, Peter Beinart (here with Yossi Klein Halevi), J Street and Todd Gitlin (and here) as well as challenging them on their stands vis-à-vis democracy. Israel seems quite determined to survive, despite leftist woes of moral depravity.Does Israel place its trust in a Diaspora ''League of Trembling Israelites'', or does it trust its own experience?