Majority of Israelis Pessimistic about Security in Foreseeable Future

The Israeli Voice Index for March 2022 focused on Israeli’s security in wake of recent terror attacks and found that the majority of both Jewish and Arab Israelis are pessimistic about Israel’s security situation in the foreseeable future.

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The Israeli Voice Index is a monthly survey conducted by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research.

Main findings:

Personal security – currently 83% of Arab Israelis and 64% of Jewish Israelis say they have a small degree or no personal security. 16% of Arab Israelis and 33% of Jewish Israelis say they have a very large or fairly large degree of personal security. The majority of both Jewish and Arab Israelis are pessimistic about Israel’s security situation in the foreseeable future (66% and 70% respectively). This is the highest level of pessimism regarding national security IDI has surveyed in the past two years.

Do Arab Israelis Support Terrorism? 40% of Jewish Israeli believe that only a minority of Arab Israelis support terrorist attacks. Less than a third (31%) of Jewish Israeli estimate that such violence is supported by a majority of Arab Israelis. Comparatively, a large majority of Arab Israelis (77%) think that only a minority of their community supports terrorism.

Segmenting the sample of Jews according to political camps, while a majority (78% and 57%) of those who identify as ‘left’ and ‘center’ believe that only a minority of Arab Israelis support terrorism, among those who identify as ‘right,’ slightly more than a quarter think this is the case (28%).

Revenge - A majority of Jewish Israelis (58.5%) estimate that only a minority of their community supports acts of revenge against Arabs, following terror attacks and among Arab Israelis this is the most common answer (37%)

Courts soft on terror? A large majority (85%) of Jewish Israeli believe that the penalties imposed by the courts for carrying out terrorist attacks are too light, compared to only 22% of Arab Israelis.

Examination of the Jewish public by political identification found that in the three camps there is a large majority for this sentiment, on the left (62%), and certainly in the center and on the right (81% and 91% respectively).

Ethical considerations in the face of terrorism - A very large majority of Jewish Israelis (78%) agree that in the fight against terrorism there is no room for moral considerations and all means can be used to prevent terrorist attacks. Only a minority (19%) do not agree with this statement. This is a large increase compared to a similar question asked in 2018, when only 38.5% agreed that moral considerations are an irrelevant factor in the fight against terrorism.

Segmentation by political camp shows that a large majority from the right (85%) and the center (75%) think so compared to half of the left (51.5%).

Arab leadership – Only 12% of Jews believe that the Arab Israeli leadership is working resolutely against Arab violence against Jews. This is similar to data measured after the violence in May 2021, during the outbreak of violence in Israel’s mixed cities between Jews and Arabs. This is compared to 60.5% of Arabs who think so, which in this case it is a significant increase (from 44.5% in May 2021).

Arab citizens and loyalty – 63% of Arab Israelis think that it is possible for an Arab citizen of Israel, who feels part of the Palestinian people, to also be a loyal citizen of the State of Israel. Among Jewish Israelis, only 28.5% think that it is possible for Arab Israelis to identify as Palestinian and still remain loyal Israeli citizens.

Integration – 73% of Arab Israelis agree that most Arab citizens of Israel want to integrate into Israeli society and be a part of it – only 21% disagree. Among Jewish Israelis only 53% agree with this statement – and 43% disagree.

Better to live separately – 67% of Arab Israelis and 35% of Jewish Israelis do not agree that it would be better if Jews and Arabs in Israel were to live separately from one another – 22% and 59% respectively think it would.

The Israeli Voice Index for March 2022 was prepared by the Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research of the Israel Democracy Institute. In the survey, which was conducted on the internet and by telephone (supplements of groups that are not sufficiently represented on the network) from March 29 to April 1, 2022, 605 men and women were interviewed in Hebrew and 156 in Arabic, constituting a representative national sample of the entire adult population of Israel aged 18 and older. The maximum sampling error for the entire sample was 3.59%± at a confidence level of 95%. The fieldwork was done by the Midgam Institute. For the full data file see: Data Israel