60 Friday, December 23, 1983
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
•
Major Survey Compares the Attitudes
of Israelis, Egyptians and Palestinians
To: The Jewish News
1 751 5 W. 9 Mile Rd.
Suite 865
Southfield, Mich. 48075
TEL AVIV — Although
Egyptians show a great deal
of ambivalence about Is-
rael's existence, on the
whole they desire peaceful
relations with Israel and
are optimistic about the
peace process.
Israelis overwhelmingly
desire peace, but they are
skeptical about the pos-
sibilities for it and are un-
willing to accept any solu-
tion that involves the estab-
lishment of an independent
Palestinian state.
The majority of Palesti-
nians, both in Israel and the
United States, have a clear
preference for the estab-
lishment of an independent
Palestinian state based on
pre-1967 borders, and are
unwilling to accept border
modifications that would
take into consideration Is-
rael's need for security.
WElf JUST
These are some of the
early conclusions of a
unique cross-cultural
survey which has tested
the attitudes of four
different peoples
-Egyptians, Israelis,
Palestinians and mem-
bers of these groups re-
siding in the U.S. —
towards the Arab-Israeli
conflict.
Paste in old label
NAME
Effective Date
J
Entitled "Images in Con-
flict," the project brought
together, for the first time,
academics from all four na ,
.tional groups in a joint ef-
fort in socio-psychological
research into the conflict. It
was initiated by Prof.
ivA ps
t TED
1
1 Nf
,iF) sitl
RADIO • *TV • DIRECT MAIL* 4
So you tried a
few different ways
to spend your advertising
money and now your sales curve
has dropped completely off the chart.
ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME YOU STARTED
USING THE MOST EFFECTIVE ONE .. .
THE JEWISH NEWS?
There are a lot of ways you
can spend your hard-earned
advertising dollars and some
of them can be very glamor-
ous and quite exotic. But
that's not what your business
needs! You need results .. .
and The Jewish News can
still deliver the customers and
lots of them for a lot less than
most of the others. Newspaper
advertising still provides the
kind of good, basic selling that
really gets the job done. Go
with the ,winner ...newspaper
advertising!
Call 4244833
THE JEWISH NEWS
Stephen Cohen of the City
University of New York and
funded by the U.S. State
Department's Agency for
International Develop-
ment.
"Our main objective was
to investigate how these
different peoples perceive
the conflict, and what their
beliefs, attitudes and inten-
tions were," Prof. Ephraim
Yuchtman-Yaar of Tel Aviv
University said. "The sur-
vey included some 4,000 re-
spondents. Originally, the
Palestinian group was to in-
clude both Israeli Arabs and
residents of the West Bank
and Gaza. However, for var-
ious reasons, both technical
and political, the West
Bank population was not
interviewed. Residents of
the Gaza Strip were inter-
viewed at a later date, so
that the data available so
far on the Palestinians re-
fers to Israeli Arabs only.
The U.S.. investigators
interviewed Israelis, Egyp-
tians and Palestinians liv-
ing in the United States,
plus a sample of American
Jews."
The investigators used a
multi-media approach to
data gathering, including a
questionnaire, reaction to
photographs as a projective
technique, and group dis-
cussions. Identical ques-
tions were posed to all
groups. The survey was car-
ried out in March and April,
1982, during the final
weeks of Israel's with-
drawal from Sinai.
Only a small portion of
the data has been
analyzed and evaluated;
it will take at least a year
to complete analysis of
the entire survey, but
there are already a
number of significant
findings.
"The Egyptians show a
high degree of ambivalence
toward Israelis and the
Israeli-Arab conflict," Prof.
Yuchtman-Yaar explained.
"On the one hand, when
presented with a number of
different solutions to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
they found the most radical
one to be the most accept-
able — a Palestinian state
that would expel the Jews.
"On the other hand, the
Egyptians are more op-
timistic about the future
than Israelis are. Over 63
percent expect intensive,
peaceful relations between
Israel and Egypt, both for-
mal and informal, and over
50 percent regard such a
prospect as the most desira-
ble of several choices pre-
sented on a questionnaire."
Prof. Michael Inbar of
Hebrew University and
Yuchtman-Yaar interpret
this apparent contradiction
as indicating a transitional
socio-psychological state
among Egyptians. For
many decades, they have
been socialized and edu-
cated to develop negative
stereotypes about Israelis.
But the Sadat peace initia-
tive was apparently enough
to "unfreeze" well-
established attitudes, al-
though no real shift has yet
taken place.
"They haven't rid
themselves of deep-
rooted feelings, but are
already willing to accept
the idea of change and
overwhelmingly support
the peace effort,"
Yuchtman-Yaar points
out. "This may be ex-
plained by the fact that
most Egyptians define
themselves as religious
and attach great impor-
tance to God as the most
critical determinant of
the outcome of the con-
flict.
"For Egyptians in general
and for the most religious
among them in particular,
political leadership is per-
ceived as an expression of
Divine will."
The Israelis also showed
ambivalence. They were ex-
tremely anxious for the
realization of peace: 73 per-
cent saw intensive, peaceful
relations with Egypt as the
"most desirable" choice,
compared with 15 percent of
the Egyptians. But the Is-
raelis surveyed were less
optimistic than Egyptians
about the future realization
of peace. While 63 percent of
the Egyptians expected
friendly relations with Is-
rael in the future, only 34
percent of the Israelis did.
This skepticism explains,
at least in part, the Israeli
attitude to the Palestinian
issue, according to Prof.
Yuchtman-Yaar. No more
than 20 percent of the Is-
raelis questioned would
support a solution involving
the establishment of an in-
dependent Palestinian
state, even if it provided for
border modifications consis-
tent with Israel's security
needs.
Israeli ambivalence
was also reflected in the
fact that while they al-
most unanimously re-
jected an independent
Palestinian state, they
showed no consensus on
any solution to the con-
flict. None of the nine
possible outcomes of the
Palestinian issue pre-
sented 'in the question-
naire was accepted by a
majority of Israeli re-
spondents.
It appears clear, however,
that the Israelis tended to
support proposals which
they believed would
minimize risks to Israel's
security. Thus, annexation
of the West Bank and Gaza
was the most popular solu-
tion, with fully 41 percent of
Israeli respondents accept-
ing it. Next in favor was the
autonomy plan, accepted by
about 31 per,cent.
The survey found that Is-
raelis were generally un-
compromising on the future
of Jerusalem. A total of 95
percent wanted a unified
Jerusalem as the capital of
Israel, while 21 percent
would accept limited Arab
sovereignty, and only nine
percent were willing to see
Jerusalem divided again.
"Unlike the Israelis,
Palestinians seem to have
relatively clear preferences
with respect to the Israeli-
Palestinian issue," accord-
ing to Prof. Yuchtman-
Yaar. About two-thirds of
the Palestinians inter-
viewed in Israel found ac-
ceptable a solution involv-
ing the establishment of an
independent Palestinian
state with the pre-1967 bor-
ders of the West Bank and
Gaza. The same proportion
was found among Palesti-
nians residing in the United
States.
"It should be noted that
among Israeli Jews, no
more than five percent
would accept such a solu-
tion. This provides a
`numerical' expression
for -the contrasting pref-
erences of the two
peoples," he added.
Although a majority of Is-
raeli Jews and Palestinians
did not support solutions
involving the expulsion of
the adversary's population,
a significant minority in
both groups did accept such
extreme alternatives.
A total of 26 percent of Is-
raelis were willing to accept
annexation with expulsion
of the Arab population,
while 18 percent found this
to be the best solution. The
contrasting extreme — a
Palestinian state would ex-
pel the Jews — was ac-
cepted by 28 percent of
Palestinians in Israel, and
11 percent said it was the
preferred solution. For
Palestinians residing in the
U.S., the corresponding fig-
ures were 36 percent and 21
percent.
Death Toll Hits
6 in Jerusalem
Bus Explosion
JERUSALEM (JTA) —
Serena Sussman, an Ameri-
can tourist from South
Carolina, died at Hadassah
Hospital Monday night of
burns suffered in the ter-
rorist bombing of a
Jerusalem bus Dec. 6.
Her death brought to six
the number of fatalities in
the incident. Forty-six per-
sons were injured in the
explosion and four were kil-
led at the scene. Another of
the persons died of her
wounds last week.
Mrs. Sussman, 60, was
born in Jerusalem and con-
sidered herself an Israeli
despite her long residence
in the U.S.
Thousands Visit
Rio Exhibit
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA)
— Thousands of people vis-
ited a week-long exhibition
on kibutzim and agricul-
tural and irrigation systems
in Israel. The event, which
marked Israel Week here,
was officially opened by
First Lady Dulce
Figueiredo and was spon-
sored by the Zionist Organ-
ization of Rio.