How Israel Feels About War and Peace

AS the search for a Middle East peace formula intensifies, Israel is coming under increasing attack from friends as well as foes. The complaint: Jerusalem is too rigid and hawkish. Last week, for example, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat proposed that Israeli troops pull back from the Suez Canal; Egyptian troops would occupy the canal's east bank, and Cairo would reinstitute a formal ceasefire. The suggestion was greeted suspiciously by Israel, which is adamant against Egyptian troops crossing the canal under such terms.

The Israeli government's approach may indeed be too tough and hypercautious. But a TIME-Louis Harris poll indicates that this stance enjoys overwhelming support among Israelis. If any U.S., Soviet or Arab policymakers assume that there is a significant dove faction in Israel, they appear sorely mistaken. Harris pollsters questioned a carefully selected sample of 1,177 Israeli Jews; since Arabs make up approximately 10% of Israel's 3,000,000 citizens, 128 Israeli Arabs were also surveyed. Asked about peace, relations with neighboring countries, the occupied lands and domestic problems, the Arabs were generally optimistic about the future and eager for compromise. The Jews were by and large unyielding.

TIME'S survey, carried out with the help of Public Opinion Research of Israel Ltd., indicates that there is scant public pressure on the coalition government of Premier Golda Meir to soften any policy--or, for that matter, to harden it. Of the Jewish Israelis questioned, 85% feel that the government is doing all it should to negotiate a peace treaty. They also give stunning support to the government position that the occupied territories of East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Sharm el Sheikh should be retained by Israel in any settlement (see map). Only 7% of the Israelis* questioned feel that the government should be more flexible in negotiating with the Arabs. As Harris notes: "Public attitudes are unlikely to determine policy. But they can indicate the limits of policy within which the government must operate if it is to have the support of the people."

The poll upsets the assumption that young Israelis are considerably less rigid than their elders. Under some circumstances they are: those aged 18 to 29, for instance, appear more amenable to increased social relations with Israeli Arabs than do older groups. More of the young think the government has been too rigid in its approach toward peace than do other groups (14% v. 2% among those aged 40 to 59). But the young are also more insistent than the older Israelis on holding direct talks with the Arabs rather than the indirect discussions being conducted through United Nations Mediator Gunnar Jarring. When it comes to surrendering territory captured from the Arabs during the 1967 Six-Day War, the 18-to-29s are most hawkish: 28% want to retain all territory or expand Israel's borders, v. 21% in the overall sample.

Following are summaries of the attitudes toward major national issues:

POSSIBILITIES OF PEACE: Of those questioned, 68% foresee peaceful relations, although only one in five believes that this can happen within five years. A total of 56% feel that the chances for peace are better now than they were a year ago. One obstacle from the Israeli point of view is distrust: 56% of those questioned feel that Egypt's Sadat was not sincere when he offered to recognize Israel's sovereignty; 30% are willing to take him at his word and 14% are not sure.

Only 3% of Israelis believe that the Jarring talks have an excellent chance of leading to a meaningful peace settlement, and only 26% feel that the chances are good. This may be because they dislike the way in which peace negotiations have been carried on so far. In the minds of 60%, the only way talks can possibly succeed is by means of direct discussions between Israel and the Arabs. Peace guarantees must also be directly agreed on by Israel and the Arabs, say 57%, while 35% believe that the Big Four must guarantee the settlement for it to be effective.

THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES: The major obstacles to peace now are the occupied territories. Nearly three out of four Israelis (73%) are prepared to give back some for overall peace, even though 18% prefer to retain the present de facto borders and 3% actually want to expand them. Only 4% would return all the occupied land. Fully 93% of Israelis approve Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem and such expansions as the controversial housing projects at Nebi Samwil on which Israels Housing Ministry has begun work.

Possibly because Israelis consider Syria the neighbor most reluctant about reaching peace, an overwhelming 86% favor the annexation of the Golan Heights, from which Syrian artillery regularly shelled Israeli kibbutzim before the war. And 72% are for keeping Sharm el Sheikh, from which Egyptian gunners in the past turned back ships bound for the Israeli port of Eilat. About the only territory that significant numbers of Israelis are generally prepared to let go is the sandy western Sinai desert. Yet even here, only 18% are willing to give the captured desert back to Egypt, while 29% favor annexation, and 38% propose neutralizing the territory as a buffer zone.

THE REFUGEE PROBLEM: Israelis accept (61%) that peacemaking will be difficult unless the Palestinian refugee problem is somehow solved (81% of Israeli Arabs feel the same way; this is one of the few issues on which the two groups agree). Yet by a 58% to 34% margin, Israelis find it difficult to feel sympathy for the refugees because they believe so many of them want to see Israel destroyed.

Offered five possible solutions to the situation, Israelis heavily rejected four. Only 2% believe that refugees should be allowed to return to live wherever they want in Israel; 13% feel they should return but only if they are settled in specified areas; 7% favor an East Bank-West Bank Palestinian state; and 8% would accept a West Bank Palestinian state. The predominant view (57%) is that the refugees should be settled in Arab countries with Israel paying them compensation.

ATTITUDES TOWARD ARABS: Such sentiment against the refugees is partly a reflection of Israeli prejudice against Arabs generally (see chart). It is impossible to determine the extent to which such feelings have been colored by a quarter-century of war and unremitting hostility between Arab and Jew. Only a fourth of the Israeli Jews admit that prejudice exists against the Arabs. Yet the highest government job the majority is willing to give an Arab at the present time is a low-level civil service position. Among the Israelis, 23% say they would be bothered if an Arab sat beside them in a restaurant, 26% if they had to work closely with one, 49% if an Arab family moved next door, 54% if their children had an Arab teacher, 74% if their children became close friends with Arabs, and 84% if a friend or relative were to marry an Arab. The most biased Israelis are recently arrived Sephardic Jews from Africa and Asia, many of whom lived in Arab countries. The least biased are native-born Sabras, followed by the Europe-bred Ashkenazi Jews.

Israeli Arabs, since they are the minority, were merely asked if they felt discriminated against; 54% do. On the peace issue, the dominant Arab view is that indirect negotiations with Egypt and Jordan could succeed and that the Big Four could reach a Middle East settlement. Israeli Arabs are more inclined to return all or some occupied territory (88% v. 77% of the Israelis) and 49% would like to see the West Bank become a Palestinian state. Their principal domestic worry is one that ranks low among Israelis: 22% feel that taxes are too high and living costs too steep.

HOW THE GOVERNMENT RATES: Israelis are high Ott their political leaders. Defense Minister Moshe Dayan is most lauded, with 95% rating him anywhere from "excellent" to "pretty good." Dayan even outpolled Mrs. Meir, whose rating was 91%. Abba Eban received 78% among Israelis (and 75% among Arabs who approve of his relative dovishness and the fact that he makes radio broadcasts in perfect Arabic). Opposition Leader Menahem Begin received a 66% rating. Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek and Deputy Premier Yigal Allon each received 65%; Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir, 53%.

Golda Meir, for the time being at least, appears to have a lock on the Premier's office. She is the first choice for that job of 52% of Israelis. Dayan is a distant runner-up: 20% make him their first choice for Premier and 31% their second choice. Allon got first-choice votes from 8% and second choice from 21%. Political observers note, however, that on the day Premier Levi Eshkol died two years ago, Golda Meir rated poorly in a poll of possible successors.

With few exceptions Israelis believe the Labor government is doing an excellent job. Only in two out of eleven areas is the government faulted, and mildly at that. A total of 38% think that relations could be improved with the Soviet Union, perhaps indicating a hope that if the two nations were on better terms, the exodus of Soviet Jews to Israel might increase. A total of 62% think the government has not been effective in planning postwar policies or are not sure that it has. Israelis are also worried about a decline in their quality of life: 44% agree with the statement, "The country has been at war for so long that many Israelis are getting hardened and militaristic"; 47% disagree. In the 18-to-29 age group, 56% agree that there is danger that Israel is developing a garrison-state mentality.

FEELINGS ABOUT RELIGION: No written constitution has ever been framed, partly because Israelis have been unwilling to define too closely the limits of religious orthodoxy. The TIME-Louis Harris survey indicates a lessening of religious commitment. Of those interviewed, only 13% define themselves as religious, 40% as non-religious and the remaining 47% as traditionalists who observe at least major holy days. While 49% consider that religion plays just about the right role in Israel, 38% think orthodoxy has too great a say, and their most common complaint is that it interferes with their private lives. There is an almost even division on the issue of complete separation of synagogue and state: 46% favor it, and 47% oppose it. Of college graduates surveyed, 53% think religion plays too great a role in Israel. Less educated Jews are less complaining.

In spite of such leanings, the group as a whole is overwhelmingly in favor of continued religious influence on government activities. Civil marriages in place of religious services are opposed by 54%, while 72% favor the present system of serving only kosher food to Israel's armed forces.

One conclusion that emerges quite clearly from the survey is that Israelis feel generally secure. Fully 72% think it would be only "slightly difficult" or "difficult but not impossible" for Israel to defend itself without financial aid from Jews abroad; 76% feel the same about survival without U.S. support. Israelis obviously believe that they are negotiating from strength and can therefore hold out for the kind of hard Arab concessions they deem necessary to insure their peace and survival. What if this attitude were to lead to war? A minuscule 3% foresee defeat, while 91% are certain that Israel can triumph over the Arabs a fourth time around. Surprisingly, 56% of Israeli Arabs agree.

* Israelis, for the poll's purposes, indicates only Jewish Israelis.

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