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Tova
May you be inscribed
in the Book of Life
The Jewish National Fund expresses deepest
appreciation to all who supported its Operation
Promised Land campaign over the past year. This
year the Jewish people will celebrate the 3000th
anniversary of King David's founding of Jerusalem as his
capital. JNF invites you to join in our historic programs
that will enhance the city of David with JNF's Jerusalem
3000 projects.
5756
Dr. Samuel I. Cohen
National Executive Vice President
Edward Rosenthal
Regional Director
Milton S. Shapiro
National President
Eli A. Scherr
Regional President
(KEREN KAYELIETH LEISRAEL)
17100 W. Ten Mile Rd., Southfield, MI 48075 810/557-6644
MAY
Defining Ambivalence
For The Israeli Voter
Recent polls suggest that Israelis aren't
sure what they think or want.
INA FRIEDMAN ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT
E
yen though most of "main-
stream Israel" — the sector
of the population whose
way of life is mirrored on
the airwaves and in the mass-cir-
culation press — doesn't gener-
ally partake in the spirit of the
"Days of Awe" between Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the
approaching new year is,
nonetheless, a time of national
stocktaking. The focus recently
has been on a rash of end-of-the-
year polls. Yet rather than en-
lighten the body politic, they lead
to the conclusion that Israelis
aren't sure what they think or
want.
The clearest sign of national
ambivalence was that polls run
by the country's two major tele-
vision channels for Israel's "Man
of the Year" yielded diametrical-
ly opposite results.
In the survey done for the
state-run Channel 1, by leading
pollster Dr. Mina Tsemach (based
on a representative sample of
over 500 Jews and Arabs), Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin won the
coveted position (albeit with only
19 percent of the vote), followed
by Foreign Minister Shimon
Peres (16 percent) and Likud
Chairman Benyamin Netanyahu
(8 percent).
In the one done for the com-
mercial (and more upbeat) Chan-
nel 2, conducted as voluntary
phone-in, Mr. Netanyahu carried
the day. Naturally, the two chan-
nels squabbled over the legiti-
macy of their respective methods.
But the contradictions didn't end.
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Yitzhak Rabin:
o_rilenot4ntififIn
The same poll that picked Mr.
Rabin as "Man of the Year" also
chose him as the most disap-
pointing political figure. Mr. Ne-
tanyahu, likewise came in for
knocks as the country's most "ir-
ritating" figure. But contrary to
his tenured reputation as a "tire-
less intriguer" (Mr. Rabin's
words, in his 1979 autobiogra-
phy), Shimon Peres was picked
as Israel's most "decent politician"
— though some respondents
balked that the very description
was a contradiction in terms.
Asked to explain the paradox
of being Israel's man of the year
and yet most disappointing one,
Mr. Rabin spoke of the public's
high expectations of the peace
process, which have yet to be ful-
filled.
In the same week that the two
polls were conducted, the inde-
pendent monitoring group Peace
Watch totaled up an increase of
73 percent in the number of Is-
raelis killed in terror attacks in
the two years since the signing of
the Oslo accords.
For all their anger and an-
guish, however, 42 percent of Is-
raelis reported to Dr. Tsemach
that their mood had not changed
at all in the past year 34 percent
said that it had improved and
only 24 percent complained that
it had worsened.
Corroborating that finding, Tel
Aviv University's "Peace Index,"
compiled monthly by the Tami
Steinmetz Center for Peace Re-
DEFINING page 154