A recent survey by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) finds a precipitous drop in the proportion of Israeli Jews who assign equal value to the state’s Jewish character and its democratic character. But the survey is deeply flawed, writes Evelyn Gordon, and not merely by methodological sloppiness: it has skewed the results to reflect an assumption now current on the Israeli left. Gordon explains:
The question asked was, “Israel is defined as both a Jewish and a democratic state. Which part of this definition is more important to you personally?” Thus, respondents weren’t given the option of “both equally”; they were instructed to choose either Jewish or democratic, and were recorded as valuing both traits equally only if they volunteered that view despite its not being listed. Had “both equally” been offered as an option, more people would certainly have chosen it.
Yet the question’s phrasing reflects a far broader problem. Like the IDI researchers, a growing swath of Israel’s Left increasingly insists that Israel can’t be both Jewish and democratic; it has to prioritize one or the other. . . .
[B]y demanding that people choose, the Left has destroyed the old consensus that viewed Israel’s Jewish and democratic values as mutually compatible and equally vital. Now, many Israelis have been convinced these values conflict, requiring one to be elevated above the other. And that creates a growing risk of all-out Kulturkampf between those who favor Israel’s Jewishness and those who favor its democracy.
Read more on Evelyn Gordon: http://evelyncgordon.com/pushing-a-false-choice-between-jewish-and-democratic/