Earlier today Phil and I wrote about a new survey of Israeli attitudes by the Pew Research Center. The poll response that is generating the most attention is the finding that almost half of Israeli Jews agreed with the statement “Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel”:
Israeli Jews are divided on the question of whether Arabs should be allowed to live in the Jewish state. The survey asked Jews whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree or strongly disagree with the statement that “Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel.” Roughly half of Israeli Jews strongly agree (21%) or agree (27%), while a similar share disagree (29%) or strongly disagree (17%).
The Institute for Middle East Understanding collected the following quotes from Palestinian leaders inside Israel and other members of the Palestinian community responding to the poll findings. One theme that is immediately clear is that no one was surprised. – Adam Horowitz