National security continues to dominate the Israeli political reality. Over the past four years, Israel has fought two small scale wars, one on the northern front and one on the southern front. Although as a result of those wars Israel has enjoyed an almost unprecedented period of quiet, the threats from Hizbollah in the north and Hamas in the south remain. The threat from Iran looms large on the horizon. Above all, the Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts figure as irresolute as ever. Perhaps predictably, then, and the economic crisis of recent years notwithstanding, issues of national security persist in being...

Observers of the Israeli scene often claim there has been a shift to the right in Israeli public opinion over the last two or three years. This perception is ostensibly supported by the results of the general elections in February 2009, which saw the rise of a right wing government. The findings of the May 2009 survey indeed show a shift to the right compared to the results of 2007, but definitely not one of dramatic proportions. The shift is manifested primarily by a substantive decrease in support for extreme left positions. The overall picture is one of consistency rather...

The general elections in 2009, which resulted in the formation of a right wing government led by Binyamin Netanyahu, suggest the strengthening of rightist tendencies in Israeli society. Does this reflect the actual tenor of public opinion in terms of attitudes toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? One would expect some correlation between public opinion on national security issues and voting behavior. At the same time, one’s vote is related to many other factors, among them economic considerations, family and ethnic loyalties, personal charisma of party leaders, party loyalty, and attractiveness of political platforms, to name but a few.

This chapter provides...

What underlies the matrix of Israeli perceptions, opinions, and attitudes? What factors account for the variation in attitudes among the Jewish population? What characteristics lie behind individual differences and determine specific opinions and attitudes on an individual level? This chapter examines two sets of critical factors that in addition to events on the ground and the influence of charismatic leaders have an impact on the formation of public opinion in Israel: the value system and demographic characteristics.

There is no single accepted definition of “values,” but values are generally conceptualized as criteria people use to select and justify actions and...

The national mood is a prevailing psychological state of the citizens in a country vis-à-vis political, social, economic, cultural, and other national issues. Studying the climate of opinion allows surveying general feelings of optimism or pessimism regarding the future. The general mood and the outlook for the future are related to the collective perception of the national security situation. Moreover, the general atmosphere in the country also shapes conventional political behavior, electoral choices, and the reaction of the public on policy initiatives launched by the government. Societal mood has a distinct nature compared to the individual psychological state of mind,...

By 2009 the Iranian nuclear issue had taken center stage in Israeli national security discourse. The efforts by Iran to achieve a military nuclear capability are of course not new and have been a subject of deep concern in Israel over the past few years. However, the preoccupation with the Iranian nuclear threat reached new heights following the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran in 2005, both as a result of his belligerent rhetoric and violent threats against Israel and the rapid progress in Iran’s nuclear program and its blatant disregard of the international community’s efforts to curb...

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the central national security issue in Israel since 1967. The public has engaged in an ongoing dialogue over its direct and indirect consequences and various formulae for its solution. Thus, any meaningful discussion of this issue from the Israeli internal point of view must take into account the immense complexity of public opinion with regard to the entire Israeli-Palestinian problem, and it is the very complexity that perhaps best accounts for the range of public opinion findings on this issue. As is often the case in public opinion studies, the slightest change in the wording...

The previous chapter charted a wide gamut of opinions among Israel’s Jewish population regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its possible solutions. Specifically, it detailed opinions relating to territories, settlements, components of a peace treaty, and unilateral withdrawals. This chapter analyzes basic perceptions and assumptions that underlie public opinion in this crucial area of national security. It presents data on the perceptions of the Israeli public toward the Arab-Israeli conflict in general and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. The analysis suggests that there is indeed a relationship between one’s perceptions and expressed opinions.

Since the intifada and the wave of terrorism...

In an era when policymakers are increasingly sensitive to the public mood, the nexus in Israel between external threats and domestic concerns has become more prominent. Previous chapters described trends in public opinion that reflect difficulties and challenges faced by the country in the sphere of foreign affairs, defense, and security. This chapter examines two important domestic issues that bear directly on national security: relations between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority, and ideological and political differences within the Jewish public.

According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2010 there are more than 7.6 million citizens in...

To draw an accurate picture of Israeli public opinion on national security issues, this memorandum uses a vast and varied amount of empirical data assembled primarily over the past five years. The data was compiled by utilizing contemporary methodological approaches and analytical techniques.

The task of interpreting the findings and assessing their meaning and ramifications, however, is equivocal. When researchers move from systematic and objective observation of behavior into the realm of interpretation and implications, they leave the safe ground of scientific methodology and veer towards uncharted waters. In Israel, data interpretation is even more difficult because Israeli public opinion...