The Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF) has released a survey that examines the attitudes of Israeli Arabs toward Israel in the wake of the riots that occurred in mixed cities last year.
Brig. Gen. (res) Amir Avivi, Founder and CEO of IDSF, tells Israel National News that the results of the survey are surprising and point to Israeli Arab society being very much against a Jewish state in Israel.
“As a serious organization we wanted to create a survey that was going to rune very few months. We wanted to learn more about how people feel inside Israel after the attack that we saw last year, these pogroms we saw in the mixed cities,” Avivi says. “We understand that there’s an issue with personal security, sovereignty in the cities. We wanted to measure that. We wanted to really understand what’s going on in both the Jewish society and the Arab society.”
The results among Jewish society aren’t so surprising, with people feeling as though they are worried about security and leadership, but the results about Arab society are startling.
The survey asked Israeli Arabs three times in different ways whether the Jews have a right to a state in the Land of Israel.
“We asked if we have a historical right and we asked if we have a religious right and also if according to international law if we have a right,” Avivi says. “In all three questions, 75 percent of the Israeli Arabs who answered our survey said the Jews have no right to a Jewish state in the Land of Israel at all. This is a huge number. It surprised us. We knew there was a problem. We didn’t realize that the problem is so big.
They also delved into what would happen if there was another period of riots in mixed cities or if an Arab country attacked Israel.
“We asked if an Arab country attacks Israel, who will you side with? Twenty three percent of the Israeli Arabs said, ‘We’ll side with the enemy.’ Fifty percent said, ‘We are not siding with anybody.’ Only a quarter said, ‘We’ll side with Israel.’ So when we look overall at the survey we can say 25 percent of Israeli Arabs see themselves as part of the Jewish State.”
Avivi explains that Israel Defense and Security Forum has over 3,000 officers and commanders, but only 10 percent of the organization are Bedouins and Druze who served in the army.
“They are still part of the Zionist project. But this is a small portion when you compare it to the 50 percent who are indifferent or the 23 percent who said they will actually side with the enemy,” Avivi says.
When asked what can be done, he agrees that it involves dealing the the problem of the anti-Israel Arab political parties but also must include more government oversight in education.
“It coincides with the way Arabs are choosing politically. They are choosing parties who don’t recognize the Jewish State, who say they want a state that is not Jewish. So it comes as no surprise that in all the history of the Israeli Arabs, they never formed another party that is more connected to the Zionist project. It didn’t happen. They all support the other parties, one is really Islamistic, the other is really against Zionism, and this is the reality.”
Two things need to be done to improve the situation, Avivi stresses.
“First of all recognize the reality, understand that we need to strengthen our army, we need to strengthen and built a strong civil force under the police – a national guard – in case there will be an upraising again, and we suspect that the next time we’ll see a much bigger upraising of Israeli Arabs that what we saw. We need to be ready for that,” he says.
In terms of education: “The State of Israel has a responsibility the way they educate in Israeli Arab schools. [Patriotism for Israel] is not happening in [Israeli Arab schools]. The kind of education Israeli Arabs get today is not controlled by the government. It’s funded but the teachers are Islamistic and nationalist. We need to be on top of education. In the longterm it’s crucial.”