Peace Index: Many Israelis Feel “The Whole World Is Against Us”

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Posted on: August 19, 2010

In July, The Peace Index, a joint venture of The Evens Mediation and Conflict Resolution Center at Tel Aviv University and The Israel Democracy Institute, looked at issues related to Israel's status in the world community. Among the findings:

"The whole world is against us." That is what 56% of the Jewish public believes. A larger majority (77%) thinks it makes no difference what Israel does and how far it may go on the Palestinian issue; the world will continue to be very critical of it. The positions of the Arab public are reversed: a large majority (75%) disagrees with the maxim that the whole world is against Israel, and a majority of 54% sees a connection between Israel’s actions and world criticism.
Should Israel take world opinion into account? The Jewish public is split almost evenly on this question: 51% think Israel should consider world opinion when making foreign policy decisions while 48% think it should not. The picture is quite different when it comes to the United States – a sweeping majority (71%) thinks Israel should take Washington’s positions into account. In the Arab public, a huge majority (85%) thinks Israel should take world opinion into account when making foreign policy decisions and an even larger majority (89%) thinks Israel should be cognizant of U.S. opinion.
A people that dwells alone? On the question of Israel’s current status in the international arena, a small majority of the Jewish public thinks Israel is moderately or completely isolated (54%), compared to 46% who say it is not isolated. The picture in the Arab public is the reverse, but not dramatically so: 48% think Israel is isolated while 51% see it as not being isolated.