4. To what extent do you believe or not believe there is a real chance to
resolve the conflict in accordance with the "two states for two peoples"
formula in the next ten years?
General Public Jews Arabs
1. Strongly believe 10.7 11.5 6.7
2. Moderately believe 29.1 28.7 31.1
3. Moderately don’t believe 32.5 31.0 41.1
4. Don’t believe at all 25.7 26.7 20.0
5. I don't know\ Refuse to answer 2.0 2.1 1.1

11. In your opinion, is Israel's linking of Memorial Day and Independence
Day proper or improper?
General Public Jews Arabs
1. Proper 61.3 69.8 13.3
2. Improper 31.0 24.0 70.0
3. I don't know\ refuse to answer 7.8 6.2 16.6

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: It should be note that the reason there were no
non-Jewish torch lighters at the ceremony was that the non-Jews chosen by
the committee refused to say that words that torch lighters say as they
light the torch ("for the glory of the State of Israel"). This development
happened after the committee finished its job and the program organizers
found themselves stuck having to find replacements. The replacements were
the next people on the list.

So if you want to use the story of the absence of non-Jewish torch lighters
to make some kind of point you could just as easily ask people if they
aren't offended or disappointed that people honored with lighting the torch
refuse to say the words "for the glory of the State of Israel" as ask if
there is something wrong that non-Jews weren't among the torch lighters.]

The Peace Index: April 2012
Survey dates: 30/04/2012 - 02/05/2012
The Peace Index is a project of the Evens Program for Conflict Resolution
at Tel Aviv University and the Israel Democracy Institute
www.peaceindex.org Email: info@peaceindex.org

Summary of the Findings

The month of April, replete with national holidays, offers a good
opportunity to gauge the public’s positions on general questions related to
the State of Israel’s performance in different areas, as well as to
questions of identity and belonging.

What has Israel accomplished? In the eyes of the Jewish public, the state
has a mixed balance sheet of successes and failures. In three areas, the
rate of positive evaluations exceeds that of negative evaluations: ensuring
the existence of the state from a military standpoint (85% of respondents
see the state as successful), maintaining the democratic regime (63.5%), and
creating a stable and modern economy (59%). In four areas, the negative
evaluations exceeds the positive, with the majority perceiving failure:
closing socioeconomic gaps (85.5%), bridging the religious-secular divide
(85%), promoting peace with the Arab world (81%), and fighting corruption
(80%).

What should be done? The Jewish public ranks the goal of reducing
socioeconomic gaps first (41%). This is followed by creating affordable
housing solutions (16%), reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians
(15%), improving Israel’s standing in the international arena (13%), and
increasing Israel’s military power (12%). For the Arab public, the most
important goals are peace with the Palestinians (34%) and reducing
socioeconomic gaps (28%).

And what about the Israeli-Palestinian issue? In response to a separate
question about the urgency of achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace , 58% of
the Jewish respondents and 51% of the Arab respondents defined the issue as
urgent or very urgent. At the same time, 58% of the Jewish interviewees and
61% of the Arab ones saw no chance of ending the conflict in accordance with
the "two states for two peoples" formula at the present time.

Who belongs and who does not? We asked: “In your opinion, were all parts of
Israeli society appropriately represented this year among the Independence
Day torch lighters?” The findings were extremely unusual for the Israeli
public: the most common answer (40%) was “I don’t know.” The rate of those
who saw the representation as appropriate was 38%, while some 22% saw it as
inappropriate. We asked specifically: “Did it or did it not disturb you that
there was not a single Israeli Arab among the torch lighters this year?”
Seventy-two percent of the Jewish respondents said this fact did not or
almost did not disturb them. The notable trend of exclusion of Israeli Arabs
was also addressed by the question “In your opinion, is ‘Hatikvah’ suitable
or unsuitable to serve as the national anthem of the State of Israel, in
which approximately one-fifth of citizens are Arabs?” An overwhelming
majority of the Jewish respondents (80%) said that the anthem is suitable.
At the same time, however, a majority of Jewish respondents (62) responded
that an Arab citizen of Israel who holds official position should not be
required to sing “Hatikvah” at public events. Among Arab respondents, 76%
thought the torch-lighting ceremony had inappropriate representation of the
different parts of Israeli society. Ninety percent of them answered that
“Hatikvah” is not suitable to serve as the country’s anthem, and 91% are
sure or think that an Arab citizen of Israel who holds an official position
should not be required to sing “Hatikvah” at public events.

The Findings in Detail

For a majority of Israelis, the time of the year from Passover through
Holocaust Remembrance Day to Independence Day is a period in which complex
issues related to the relationship between the State of Israel and its
citizens, and the nature of the state itself, are raised for public
discussion. In the April survey, we explored these issues more deeply.

We first addressed the country’s achievements to date. The data show that
for the Jewish public, the balance of Israel’s successes and failures is a
mixed one. In three areas, the rate of positive evaluations is unequivocally
higher than the rate of negative ones: ensuring the state’s existence
militarily (85% of respondents see success), maintaining the democratic
regime (63.5%), and creating a stable and modern economy (59%). These are
exactly the same three areas in which we found a positive balance of
evaluations last year. In four areas, however, the rate of negative
evaluations this year exceeds the positive, and the majority of respondents
perceive failure: closing socioeconomic gaps (85.5%), narrowing the
religious-secular gap (85%), promoting peace with the Arab world (81%), and
fighting corruption (80%). The order is different in the Arab public: Here
too, a majority (75%) sees Israel as successful in ensuring the state’s
existence militarily, and a certain majority (59%) also sees a positive
balance of success in establishing a stable economy. Unlike the Jewish
public, however, a majority of the Arab public (55.5%) sees Israeli's
maintenance of the democratic regime as a failure. In addition, in all the
areas in which the Jewish respondents saw the state as failing, the Arab
respondents thought the same.

In light of the above, we sought to clarify what goals the public believes
the state should promote. Just like last year, the Jewish public gave
highest priority to the goal of reducing socioeconomic gaps (41%); after
that came creating affordable housing (16%), reaching a peace agreement with
the Palestinians (15%), improving Israel’s standing in the international
arena (13%), and increasing Israel’s military power (12%). For the Arab
public, the most important goals are achieving peace with the Palestinians
(34%) and reducing socioeconomic gaps (28%).

A segmentation of the Jewish public’s preferences by voting in the latest
Knesset elections shows two exceptions regarding the national order of
priorities: voters for United Torah Judaism, who put affordable housing
(54.5%) first, and voters for Meretz, an overwhelming majority of whom (82%)
regard achieving peace as the state’s supreme goal. Interestingly,
increasing Israel’s military power did not top the list for the voters of
any of the parties.

In response to a separate question on the current urgency of achieving
Israeli-Palestinian peace, 58% of the Jewish respondents defined the issue
as urgent or very urgent, despite the relatively low priority this group
assigned it in the previous question. This is even more than the 51% of
Arabs who took a similar position. The considerable disagreement on this
question in both populations apparently stems from the fact that many people
in both groups (58% of Jewish respondents and 61% of Arab) currently see no
realistic chances of ending the conflict in accordance with the "two states
for two people" formula. A segmentation of the positions on this question by
voting reveals a majority for those who do see chances of such a resolution
only—and not surprisingly—among voters for Labor (90%), Meretz (68%), and
Kadima (65%).

At the end of Independence Day, we sought to gauge the Jewish public’s
degree of interest in the various national ceremonies of this time of year.
The rates of reported viewing of television broadcasts are very interesting
and perhaps suggest that at this time this year, social cohesiveness is
still high: 56% of Jewish respondents said they watched the Holocaust
Remembrance Day ceremony that was broadcast from Mt. Herzl. As for the
ceremony on Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers and the torch-lighting
ceremony on the eve of Independence Day, 61% viewed each of these
ceremonies. Twenty-seven percent reported that they watched the broadcast of
the Israel Prize ceremony, and 21% said they watched the International Bible
Quiz.

We asked: “Among the torch lighters in the ceremony on the eve of Israel
Independence Day this year, was there or was there not appropriate
representation of all parts of Israeli society?” The findings were extremely
unusual for the Israeli public, which usually displays great interest in and
knowledge of sociopolitical issues: the most common answer among Jewish
respondents (40%) was “I don’t know.” Notably, the high rate of those who
did not know or did not have an opinion on this issue was found in all the
secular and religious groups, and among the voters for most of the parties!
Some 38% saw the representation as appropriate, while 22% considered it
inappropriate. We asked more specifically: “Did it disturb you or did it not
disturb you that there was not a single Israeli Arab among the torch
lighters this year?” Seventy-two percent of the Jewish respondents said this
fact did not or almost did not disturb them. The highest rate (29%) of those
who were disturbed by it was found among those who define themselves as
secular and among Meretz (70%) and Labor (50%) voters.

The trend of exclusion of Israeli Arabs was also reflected in the answers to
the question: “In your opinion, is ‘Hatikvah’ suitable or unsuitable to
serve as the national anthem of the State of Israel, in which approximately
one-fifth of citizens are Arabs?” An overwhelming majority of the Jews (80%)
responded that the anthem is suitable. The only group that was divided on
this question was the haredim, 47% of whom thought it was suitable while 40%
thought it was not.

At the same time, a majority (62%) of the Jewish public offered the opinion
that Arab citizens of Israel who hold an official position should not be
required to sing “Hatikvah” at public events. Only among Yisrael Beiteinu
voters did a 59% majority say Arabs should be required to sing “Hatikvah” at
public events, while Jewish Home (Habayit Hayehudi) voters were evenly split
at 45%–45%. As for the Arab respondents, 76% thought there was inappropriate
representation of the different parts of Israeli society in the
torch-lighting ceremony. Ninety percent answered that “Hatikvah” is not
suitable to serve as the country’s anthem, and 91% are sure or think that an
Arab citizen of Israel who holds an official position should not be required
to sing “Hatikvah” at public events.

The Negotiations Index for April, 2012
The Peace Index project includes ongoing monitoring of the Israeli public's
attitudes towards peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian
Authority. The monthly Negotiation Index is comprised of two questions, one
focusing on public support for peace negotiations and the other on the
degree to which the public believes that such talks will actually lead to
peace. The aggregated replies to these two questions are calculated,
combined, and standardized on a scale of 0-100, in which 0 represents total
lack of support for negotiations and lack of belief in their potential to
bear fruit, and 100 represents total support for the process and belief in
its potential. Each month, the Negotiations Index presents two distinct
findings, one for the general Israeli population and the other for Jewish
Israelis.

Negotiations Index: General sample 49.5; Jewish sample 49.7

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Peace Index is a project of the Evens Program in Mediation and Conflict
Resolution at Tel Aviv University and the Israel Democracy Institute. This
month's survey was conducted by telephone on April 30- May 2 by the Dahaf
Institute. The survey included 599 respondents, who constitute a
representative sample of the adult Jewish population of Israel. The
measurement error for a sample of this size is 4.5%; statistical processing
was done by Ms. Yasmin Alkalay.