Racists?
There's a lot of self-flagellation going on today in the Israeli press due to poll results by the "Center for Combating Racism." The poll indicates that 68 percent of respondents said they do not wish to live next to an Arab neighbor, compared with 26 percent who said they would agree.Responding to a question about Arab friends, 46 percent said they would not be willing to have Arab friends who would visit them at their home.
Some 63 percent of the Jewish public sees Arab civilians as a security and demographic threat, and 34 percent of the Jewish public sees Arab culture as inferior compared to Israeli culture. Half of the population, according to the poll, is anxious and uncomfortable when hearing Arabic on the street.On another front, 18 percent of respondents said they feel intense hatred for Arab citizens of the country.
One statistic given less prominent play from the poll: "40 percent believe that the State should encourage Arabs to emigrate from the country." Some of you may recall that this was essentially the platform of Rabbi Meir Kahane HY"D's Kach party, which was banned as 'racist' when poll results started to indicate that it could take as much as 10% of the popular vote.
The problem with this article - and the poll on which it reports - is that it is completely lacking in context. Context includes both the Palestinian terror to which the Jewish public has been subjected - especially over the last five and a half years - as well as similar numbers regarding Arab attitudes towards Jews, which are of course not reported in this article or poll. I didn't see anything in this article that indicated that 70% of Israeli Jews favor murdering Israel's Arabs.
Enough said.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:46 PM
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