Survey: 'The whole world is against us'

Fifty-six percent of Jewish Israelis believe that "the whole world is against us," according to a recent Peace Index survey published on Thursday.

The Peace Index project is conducted under the auspices of the Evens Program for Conflict Resolution at Tel Aviv University and the Israel Democracy Institute.

Many Israeli Jews believe that the world will continue to be critical of Israel with 77% saying that it does not make difference what Israel does and how far it will go on the Palestinian issue.

In contrast to the Jewish population, a large majority (75%) of the Arab public disagrees with the maxim that the whole world is against Israel.

A small majority (54%) of the Jewish public believe that Israel is completely or moderately isolated, this is compared with 46% who believe that Israel is not alone. Opinion among the Arab public is similar, but in reverse, with 48% saying that Israel is isolated and 51% believe that Israel does not find itself isolated in the world.

The majority of the Jewish public believe that the government has not handled Israel's foreign relations, with 62% giving the government a failing grade.

Only 34% believe that the government's functioning in this realm as moderately or very satisfactory.

When asked the same question, the Arab public gave a much more positive response with 47% giving the government a good or very good grade.

When asked why young Jews in the Diaspora become distanced from Israel, 49% attributed a strong influence to the general weakening of Jewish identity among young people in the Diaspora. Israel's policy on the Palestinian issue was considered the least influential factor with only 22% of respondents saying that it had an influence.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman did not fair too well in the survey with 55% of Jewish respondents saying that he is moderately or greatly damaging Israel's status in the international community.

Not surprisingly opinion among the Arab population is similar but more extreme with 81% believing that Lieberman is damaging Israel.