The Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research at Tel Aviv University recently released its War and Peace Index for April 2008. Among the key findings:
On the eve of the state of Israel’s 61st Independence Day, despite all the security, economic, social, and political difficulties and despite the gloomy analyses in the media, the Jewish public is in a very good mood, with over 80% defining their personal mood as “very good” or “moderately good.” About two-thirds also assess the mood of the public as a whole as “very good” or “moderately good.” A segmentation of the answers to the questions on personal mood by voting for the Knesset shows that 75% or more of the voters for all the parties define their mood as well as the national mood as “very good” or “moderately good”; the exception is the voters for Torah Judaism, only half (personal) and about one-quarter (national) of whom feel that way. A segmentation of the data by age, sex, religiosity, and income showed no gaps between the different groups. In other words, statistically at least, what we have here is a significant finding.
As for general assessments of the state’s achievements so far, the picture is even rosier: close to 90% of the Jewish public rate the state’s achievements since its establishment as “very good” or “moderately good.” Expectations about the future are also positive: 81% are “very optimistic” or “moderately optimistic” about the future of the state of Israel. Not surprisingly, then, 81% of the Jewish interviewees say that if given the choice to live in Israel or a different country, they would choose to continue to live in Israel.
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