Poll Answers and Results: Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State

The poll results were very interesting. 205 people answered the poll, and I belatedly found out that on SurveyMonkey the free account only allows you to views the data on the first 100. Regardless the first 100 answers were certainly enough to get a feel for what people knew.

Some answers were obvious and most people knew them or figured them out. Other questions were tricky or at least non-intuitive if you didn’t already know the answer.

Below are the correct answers and the explanation for each one.


1. Who coined the term describing Israel as a "Jewish and Democratic State"?

(a) Ben Gurion (b) The Israeli Declaration of Independence
(c) Peace Now (d) Rabbi Meir Kahane

Many people believe that this term is as old as the state, but that is not the case.

This phrase was coined and first used by (a) Peace Now in after 1967 to explain why Israel must divest itself of significant and important historical sections of the Jewish homeland.

Peace Now forwarded the argument that if Israel is to remain a Jewish and democratic state, Israel must rid ourselves of the Arabs that threaten Jewish majority control of the state of Israel. Quite interesting, at the time, Peace Now espoused the same exact goal as Rabbi Meir Kahane, just through a different method.


2. Was Israel founded as:

(a) A Jewish and Democratic state (b) A state of all it’s citizens
(c) A Jewish state (d) The 51st state

The majority knew that Israel was founded exclusively as (c) a Jewish state, as explicitly declared in the Declaration of Independence and not a Jewish and Democratic state (they probably read our earlier posts and comments on that).

In the Declaration if Independence, Israeli is defined as a Jewish state that also offered equal political rights and personal freedoms for its non-Jewish residents. While clearly offers special interests and policies to Jewish nationals first.

Israel certainly wasn’t founded as a state of all its citizens as the term is used today.

In 1948 there were only 48 states in the union, so Israel would have been the 49th.

3. Where is Israel legally defined as a "Jewish and Democratic state"?

(a) Israeli Declaration of Independence (b) The Torah
(c) Israel’s Basic Laws (d) None of the above.

The answer is (c) Israel’s Basic Laws enacted on March 17, 1992.

Rights protected by Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty
• Section 1: The purpose of this Basic Law is to protect human dignity and liberty, in order to establish in a Basic Law tile values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

Former Chief Justice considers the Basic Laws as a precursor to an Israeli constitution and gives them similar powers, even though, those that voted in the Basic Laws did not understand them as such at the time.

More than half the people thought the answer was (d) None of the above.


4. Who is against defining Israel a Jewish and Democratic state?

(a) PA President Mouhamad Abbas (b) Peace Now
(c) New Israel Fund (d) Israel’s Labor Party (e) All of the above

Nearly everyone correctly identified the right answer as (e) All of the above.

To one degree or another, all of the above want to change Israel’s Jewish character and definition and make Israel a state of all its citizens and not a Jewish state (see next question).

5. Is Israel, as a state of all its citizens:

(a) a Jewish state (b) a non-Jewish state
(c) a future Islamic state (d) The end of the Jewish state

The only (possibly) wrong answer is (a) a Jewish state.

By removing the Jewish from the Jewish state and defining it as a state of everyone, by definition you no longer have a Jewish state. (“If everyone is special, then no one is special” – Dash)

You might have a state that temporarily retains a Jewish majority, but that is not sustainable if the state can’t unequivocally work to maintain the Jewish majority, in part through a selective immigration policy that favors Jewish nationals.

All the other answers are what would inevitably happen if Israel were no longer defined and run by the principles of it being a Jewish state.

Surprisingly, more than half the respondents believe that even if Israel were defined as a state of all its citizens, it would somehow inexplicably remain a Jewish state regardless – even though that would remove any vestige of Jewish national centrality from the government’s policies, laws, immigration policies and character.

I first thought they didn't understand what the term and consequences meant and assumed that because Jews would temporarily still be the majority and temporarily shape the character of the country, those that answered (a) simply weren’t thinking of what would be a few years into the future.

But I realized their answer must be far more subtle than that.

Presumably they meant that the Land of Israel, by definition, will always be the Jewish state, no matter if the Jews are in exile, the minority, or if the country is democratically overthrown and turned into a “state of all its citizens”.

Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish People exclusively, and so even if no one calls Israel the Jewish state, and even if the Jews become a minority (or non-existent), and Jerusalem is ripped away from the control of the people of Israel and given to the Palestinians or to an International body to govern, the land of Israel can never lose its basic definition as the Jewish state.

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Polls

by Lurker

Gallup: US support for Israel near all-time high (also here and here)

Haaretz: US support for Israel is decreasing, new poll shows

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The Great Election Poll Roundup

By Israeli law, polls cannot be conducted or taken any more till Israel's election. The above table represents the latest (and last) polls from Israel, all published on Friday, Feb 7th, 2009.

One of the commenters on Friday's post said he was voting for Kadima. I'd like to understand why anyone would vote for the most corrupt party in Israel's history? The current Kadima Prime Minister, Ehud Olmet attended his 13th police investigation this past Friday for corruption in the past 2 year period.

Additional winners from the upcoming elections, Kadima party list include:

Kadima #4: MK Tzachi HaNegbi: Indicted, awaiting trial for fraud and breach of trust for allegedly making 69 inappropriate political appointments while serving as environment minister between 2001 and 2003)

Kadima #8 MK Ruchama Avraham: Under police investigation for bribery, stopped by Israeli customs agents last week for illegally smuggling whiskey into Israel.

Kadima #13 MK Yaakov Edri: Police recommend indictment for breach of trust and accepting a bribe, awaiting special hearing.

Kadima #14 MK Eli Aflalo: Under police investigation for bribery.

Kadima #17 MK Chaim Ramon: Convicted sexual predator -- sexual harassment.

Down but not out: in addition to Ehud Olmert, don't forget former Finance Minister and MK Avraham Hirschson (indicted for breach of trust, aggravated fraud, theft and money laundering) and past MK Omri Sharon, convicted criminal of fraud and breech of public trust.

Don't forget Ari Shavit's scathing analysis of Tzippi Livni on Haaretz (of all places).

I could go on and on about Kadima, but I honestly don't understand why anyone would vote for them. I could even think of more reasons to vote for the Labor party, than for Kadima. This is the party that founded itself on the coat-tails of the Disengagement, the party that then continues to turn its back on the refugees of Gush Katif -- after forcibly removing them from their homes, denying them permanent housing, causing severe unemployment (over 60%), and a myriad of social and educational issues.

Livni has voted in the Knesset against every single law that would advance women's rights in Israel.

I could go on and on, but would rather talk about possibilities that might further Israel's goals as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state.

And I'll be posting that tomorrow.

Regards,

Jameel

PS: During Operation Cast-Lead, when Defense Minister Ehud Barak was running the war and Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu put aside all partisan politics and gave marathon video news interviews...Tzippi Livni decided to campaign instead (note, Labor and Likud had zero meetings like this). See the video for yourself...Channel 10 (Hebrew only)



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Day of Judgement for Israel's Pollsters

At 10 PM last night, you could hear the glee in their voices on TV and Radio:

The exit polls predict that Tzippi Livni is the new leader of Kadima!

Channel 10's Poll - 49%
Channel 1's Poll - 47%
Channel 2's Poll - 48%

It's becoming almost routine for Israel's pollsters and media pundits to get it wrong time after time. True, Tzippy Livni did win, but by 341 votes. The margin of error for a win by 341 votes makes it statistically impossible to have accurately predicted that Livni would win -- based on scientific statistical models.

One should tip their hat to the "Yisrael Hayom" (Israel Today) newspaper whose headline this morning read: "Ma'avak Tzamud" (or "neck and neck") and refused to print outright that Livni won. At one point last night during the count, Mofaz was even leading Livni by 40 votes.

So what happened? How does it happen that time after time, Israel's pollsters and media get it wrong? How did every single polling company predict that Livni would win by a double digit landslide, yet in reality she won by 1 percent?

The red-faced pollsters (and Israel's media pundits, like IDF radio host Razi Barkai) placed the blame this morning not upon themselves, but due to "the lying, conneiving Israeli."

Instead of looking at the pollsters for answers, one should be turning to sociologists and societal psychologists...or ask the pollsters why they skew results?

Everyone laughed at Shaul Mofaz when he made his "bombastic" announcement a few days ago, that he would win the primaries with a result of 43.7% of the vote -- after all, Haaretz 's poll predicted a landslide victory for Livni.

Of everyone who made predictions, Shaul Mofaz was the closest to reality! While he did lose -- Livni received 43% and himself 42%, he was closer than any other polster or pundit. Mofaz knew his people were showing up to vote, which is why he was so certain of his win. What is he secret -- perhaps he really should be the leader of Kadima?

Why would an Israeli "lie" to a pollster?

Perhaps because people enjoy getting egg on the face of the arrogant media outlets that try to run our lives on a daily basis.

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