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Judge for yourself

Author: Open Forum
Date posted: Thursday 22 Jul 2010

“What if the results are ‘bad’?” That question, more than any other, was the one raised most frequently whilst JPR carried out its survey of the attitudes of Jews in Britain towards Israel. The question itself raises many others. For example, what constitutes ‘bad’ results? As all good social scientists know, bad for one is often good for another, and vice versa. And not only that, but bad for whom exactly? Bad for Jews on the left? Bad for Jews on the right? Bad for non-Jews? Bad for Israel…?

Needless to say, no one suggested the results might be ‘good’ but that still leaves unresolved what constitutes ‘good’. It is not the researcher’s job to judge, but it is the researcher’s job to deliver credible data on which judgements can then be made. Carrying out a national survey of Jews is demanding at the best of times and when it’s focused on a topic as emotive as Israel, that task becomes doubly challenging.

In the end, the Israel Survey broke new ground for the community. It was the largest national study ever achieved in terms of responses (over 4,000), and the first such study to be carried out solely online. And this was only possible because we are fortunate as a community to have a wide range of data sources, which enabled us to ensure that the sample’s characteristics (age, location, religious leaning and so on) were representative of the Jewish population in Britain in general.

The aim of the Israel Survey was to gather data in order to better understand what Jewish people— many of whom are fourth generation Brits— think about Israel. Without data all we have is anecdote. But not even a quantitative social scientist like me would argue that data are the be all and end all in a debate as fraught and politically charged as Israel. What we have achieved is to create a baseline from which we can debate Israel in an informed manner.

So were the results ‘bad’? Judge for yourself. The vast majority of respondents to the survey expressed strong personal support for, and affinity with Israel. Almost all have visited the country. Almost all consider it to be their ‘ancestral homeland’ and feel responsible for its survival. And this is because for most Jews in Britain, Israel helps define who they are: eight of ten said that Israel plays a ‘central’ or ‘important’ role in their Jewish identities.

Thus, it is probably unsurprising to discover that the vast majority of Jewish people in Britain are concerned about Israel’s safety and security. On controversial issues such as the security fence/barrier and the Gaza War of 2008/09, very clear majorities see these as being ‘vital’ for Israel’s security. But, that is not to say they regard them as being good in themselves, but rather, that they consider them to be necessary evils in a very difficult and challenging situation.

How can we reach this conclusion? Because other findings show clear evidence of a strong desire for security and peace for Israel, and a conviction that this can best be achieved by taking conciliatory rather than confrontational stances. Three-quarters favour a two-state solution to the conflict with the Palestinians, and a similar proportion believes that it is wrong for existing settlements in the West Bank to be expanded. Almost as many favour the notion of giving up land if that will achieve peace. There was even majority support for the notion of negotiating with Hamas, if, once again, such a move could achieve peace for Israel.

In some quarters these views will be seen as particularly dovish and dangerous, but in others, quite the contrary position will be taken. ‘Good’ or ‘bad’? This question lies at the very heart of the debate about Israel.

Either way, there is evidence of division in at least one aspect of the debate: whether or not it is right for Jews to publicly criticize Israel. More than three out of ten say yes, this is ‘always’ acceptable, but four out of ten say this is only ‘sometimes’ acceptable. Only a quarter says that public criticism is ‘never’ justified. And whether they should be free to speak out or not, there is also uncertainty about whether Jews, living in Britain as they do, have the right to judge Israel at all. A majority agrees that they do, but it is a slim one.

Whether you take these and the many other findings from the Israel Survey to be ‘bad’ or ‘good’ or, most likely, a mixture of the two, goes right to the core of the exercise. It is for you, and you alone, to judge.

Dr David Graham is Director of Social and Demographic Research at JPR. He completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford and is the foremost expert in the demography of Jews in Britain, having published widely on the subject. He was previously Senior Research Officer at the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

This article first appeared in The Jewish News 15 July 2010.

The Jewish News