1:Stiana 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. FROM EVERYONE AT wow Sugar Tree Plaza • 6231 Orchard Lake Road • W. Bloomfield • 810-539-2211 411.11•11111111111111i11 ■•■■■• „ 4Sfe, iv;voif 152 r % _e L i, '‘w b . V INIPOS'S %OPP' markib ytealr-‘ A Perfect Family Gift... A Subscription to the Jewish News. 810-354-6620 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