Want To Make Israeli Jews Look Racist? Ask Pew

You may also like...

18 responses

  1. Andrew Keith says:

    Hello, thanks for the article. Am I reading this right, only Jews who believe in God were asked the question about transfer/expulsion. That seems like a damning omission.

    However, what percentage of Israeli Jews believe in God? Wouldn’t that percentage together with the answer to the question at issue at least provide some valid information?

    • Sheri Oz says:

      No. You are wrong. Only Jews who believe in God were asked if they believe the land was given to the Jews by God. And I did not relate to that question in this article. Everyone was asked if they agree with transfer/expulsion — and that is the question of importance here.

      • Andrew Keith says:

        Ok, I was wrong, I misunderstood what you were saying. So the 48% who agreed with expulsion/transfer is correct. I think that’s very disturbing, even given your critique.

        • Sheri Oz says:

          The whole point of my article was that we cannot say that 48% really agree with expulsion/transfer. I am disturbed by the invalid and biased survey being used to say that Jews are racist (even though Arabs are not really a race). I think if a truly valid and neutral survey would be done the statistic would be very very low. But do you think anyone other than Israeli Jews or other Zionists would want to prove that?

          • Andrew Keith says:

            I think you make some good points. However, the 48% number is still disturbing, no matter how people understood the question. If 48% of whites agreed that blacks should be transferred/expelled in the United States, that would be a catastrophe.

            Even if all 48% agree with Lieberman’s definition of expulsion, that would be problematic. States have no right to de-nationalize anyone under these circumstances. Such a de-naturalization would be in blatant violation of the Treaty of Lausanne and the 1922 Mandate of Palestine.

          • Sheri Oz says:

            Who says the 48% is real? That is the whole point of my article. You refuse to accept that that number is most likely not true. I think I have provided reasonable doubt regarding the prosecution’s case (that 48% Israeli Jews want to expel Arabs) and the judge should dismiss the case. Go find someone to do another survey and bring more valid statistics. Then we can talk again.

          • Andrew Keith says:

            The 48% of course may be inaccurate, but those were the results and I cannot just dismiss it out of hand. Even if it is off by 10%, that’s still disturbing, and 10% is a high error rate.

  2. Andrew Keith says:

    Well, the survey says that 80% of Israeli Jews believe in god, so I think the findings have some significance, in my humble opinion. Even if assume that all Jews who don’t believe in God don’t favor expulsion/transfer – which is very unlikely – you’re still talking about at least 38% of Israeli Jews that do, and that number is assuredly higher given that some Israeli Jews who don’t believe in God favor expulsion/transfer.

    What would be your reaction if more than 38% of white Americans favored transfer/expulsion of blacks, no matter what they intended by transfer/expulsion?

    • Sheri Oz says:

      Here you are basing your comment on your erroneous assumption from the previous comment. The question about transfer/expulsion was asked of all Jews. The 38% you are referring to are those who self-define as leftist and the question concerned special privileges for Jews. Since leftists most certainly do not believe in special privileges for Jews, that statistic does not make any sense at all. That is why I question how this survey was carried out and that is why I raise questions regarding its validity. And this question was not about transfer/expulsion. So please do not mix things up like this.

  3. Andrew Keith says:

    I read page 148 and it doesn’t indicate that only Jews who believe in God were asked about expulsions. Would you please quote this language and check the page number?, thanks. In addition, this language is on page 17: ” But even among these self-described secular Israeli Jews, about one-third (36%) favor the expulsion of Arabs from the country.” What is your response?

    • Sheri Oz says:

      Page 148 talks about whether or not the interviewee believes Israel was given to the Jews by God. The question of transfer/expulsions was discussed on page 153. Page 17 gives a brief summary. Secular Jews are not all leftists. Many are center and many are right-wing. As you can see, it is the left-wing Jews who strongly disagree with the transfer/expulsion of Arabs. But, again, the question of transfer/expulsion is not clear and I strongly believe that the question was not asked in a way that would allow to understand what the respondent meant.

  4. Andrew Keith says:

    The relevant language on page 148 reads;

    Majority of Israeli Jews say Israel given to
    the Jewish people by God (original in bold)

    “Roughly six-in-ten Israeli Jews (61%) say God
    gave Israel to the Jewish people, while 12% say
    this is not literally true. The remainder – those
    who say they do not believe in God or do not
    know if they believe in God – were not asked
    this question (27%).”

    This language does not support your argument. In addition, in my humble opinion, the fact that 61% of the population believes that God gave Israel to the Jewish people is a disturbing finding.

    • Andrew Keith says:

      Ok, I was mistaken, no need to post this comment.

    • Sheri Oz says:

      I did not deal at all with the question of whether or not Israeli respondents believe God gave us this land. You are free to be disturbed by this if you want, but you are not living here. Israeli Jews are not like American Jews. If you want your values and beliefs to be reflected in Israeli policy and culture, then move here and live with us and influence the policy and culture from within. Israeli policy and culture is determined by the majority of those who live here. That is democracy.

      • Andrew Keith says:

        I am atheist, however, I respect the religious beliefs of others, with at least one major exception. I cannot respect those who want to impose their religious beliefs on others, whatever religion they are. I don’t impose my atheism on others, and I expect the same from the religious.

        With all due respect, I believe that religious Israeli Jews are imposing their religion on others, especially when calling for expulsions/transfers. It’s sad and troubling when people deny a Jewish connection to the land. It’s equally sad and troubling when people deny a non-Jewish connection to the land.

        • Sheri Oz says:

          As I have already said, we do not know how many Jews actually believe in transfer/expulsion based on the Pew survey because the survey is seriously flawed.

          The fine balance concerning religion in public spaces (a separate topic) is an ongoing debate of interest to all Israelis and we are working on it. We are only a modern state for 70 years. We are still working out the creases.

          Before there will be any determination of what happens between us and the Palestinian Arabs, there will be laws to be passed in the Knesset and these laws will certainly be challenged in the courts, and there will be demonstrations in the streets on all sides. We are an argumentative lot and we are loud. You will hear us shouting all the way over there in the USA.

  5. Leonard Feinman says:

    As time goes by, some opinions may change. But this survey was so heavily weighted by going after specific people for specific questions.
    A strong Jewish belief is that when they got to Israel, it was because Gd gave us the land. Regardless of how we came to be there, we became the only remaining indigenous people there.
    Israel should allow all veterans a tax benefit. Other than that, we must remember that as small of a country that it is, it must maintain a vast army. Those who serve keep the country alive.
    The law of the land should prevail over the entire country, including Arab villages and cities. No land trades, as Israel should not give up one more inch of land.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.