Israelis reject Diaspora Jews' opinions

Poll: Israelis reject Diaspora Jews' opinions
By ELIE LESHEM - Jerusalem Post, em 01/07/2008.

A vast majority of Israelis agree that the government should not take the opinion of Diaspora Jews into consideration in any future decision on border changes, with only 20.5 percent saying that Jews living outside Israel should have a say on the matter, according to a survey published by B'nai B'rith World Center on Tuesday.

Nevertheless, 40% of those polled said that Diaspora Jews should still be allowed to fund political campaigns and politicians in Israel. 50% said that such funding should be prohibited.

According to the survey, a significant majority of Israeli Jews - 76% - said that it was safer for a Jew to live in Israel than in the Diaspora. Only 10 percent chose the Diaspora as being safer.

The survey found notable support for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent decision to shift the focus of Israel-Diaspora relations away from promoting mass aliya, in favor of strengthening Jewish identity in the Diaspora and bolstering the connection between Jews in Israel and abroad.

46.1% of those polled said they agreed with the new goals set down by the prime minister, with 38.4% saying that the promotion of aliya should continue to be the main goal of the government.

"This result was unexpected since little public debate on the issue had taken place before and after the prime minister's announcement and since it runs in the face of six decades of official Israeli government policy to promote mass aliyah against all other Israel-Diaspora interactions," B'nai B'rith World Center Director Alan Schneider said. "Most recently, former prime minister Ariel Sharon repeatedly announced that his goal was to bring one million Jews to Israel within a decade - a goal his government fell far short of achieving."

82% of those polled believe that the recent influx of investigations and prosecutions of Israeli politicians has negatively affected Israel's image abroad, with 68.3% of these saying the effect was very negative.

Asked who bears the brunt of the responsibility for fighting anti-Semitism in the Diaspora, 43% of those polled chose Israel, with only 24% choosing local Jewish communities.

The telephone survey was conducted on June 24-25 among a representative sample of 500 Jewish Israelis over the age of 18 and had a margin of error of 4.5%.

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