75% of Israeli Arabs support Jewish state with true minority rights
Haaretz reports,
A vast majority of Israeli Arabs would support a constitution that maintained Israel’s status as a Jewish and democratic state while guaranteeing equal rights for minorities, according to a poll whose results were published on Sunday.
Among the 507 people who participated in the poll, some 75 percent said they would agree with such a definition while 23 percent said they would oppose it.
The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), a non-partisan research institute who commissioned the poll, said the results were proof that a constitution that maintained Israel’s status as a Jewish and democratic state could win the support of the Israeli Arab public.
Full story.
(c/o Bill)
507 people was the best they could do? Hardly representative, no?
That’s certainly enough for a population as small as Israel — or Israeli Arabs for that matter. You’d be surprised how small those big Gallup polls are.
…supposing it was a representative sample.
Props to kung fu. It’s true, the actual sample size for almost every political survey is surprisingly small. Even in as vast a country as the US the standard national sample size will be between 500-1,000 people total. Amazing! They then use various statistical techniques to extrapolate out to the entire population.
It all depends on how good your sample is and how good your stat algorithms are. The US exit poll debacles in November 2000 highlighted these inherent limitations. Alot of the exit poll work was better (= more accurate) by 2006, so apparently these things can improve. It’s the subject of endless discussion and tinkering.
what is a jewish and democratic state?
xintox: “Jewish” means “with an ethnic Jewish majority”, i.e. including the gentiles imported from the FSU under the grandfather clause of the Law of REturn.
“Democratic” means “with equal rights and privileges for all, regardless of ethnicity”.
good luck with that.
“Jewish” also means “reflecting Jewish culture/history/religion/etc.” in things like language, government calendar, legal precedents, espoused values, etc.
Wow. Israeli Arabs believe in democratic frameworks. Don’t tell mainstream American jewish community.