TY - CHAP
T1 - Public opinion in Israel
T2 - The sociodemographic nexus
AU - Hermann, Tamar
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Oxford University Press 2021.
PY - 2018/1/1
Y1 - 2018/1/1
N2 - In Israel, as in many other countries, the impact of public opinion on national policymaking has increased dramatically over the last few decades. In fact, public opinion has practically developed into one of the prime political inputs in Israel. This chapter argues that this increased impact, which could have contributed to improving the Israeli democracy, is in fact often undermined by the increasing overlapping of the main cleavages within Israel: between the political Right and Left, between Jews and Arabs, and between religious and secular Israelis. This extreme overlapping has severely eroded the national consensus and accelerated the emergence of deep disagreements in public opinion over strategic issues, such as the nature of the state (Jewish? Democratic?), the main challenges facing the nation (including the best way of dealing with the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict), and the desired collective future.
AB - In Israel, as in many other countries, the impact of public opinion on national policymaking has increased dramatically over the last few decades. In fact, public opinion has practically developed into one of the prime political inputs in Israel. This chapter argues that this increased impact, which could have contributed to improving the Israeli democracy, is in fact often undermined by the increasing overlapping of the main cleavages within Israel: between the political Right and Left, between Jews and Arabs, and between religious and secular Israelis. This extreme overlapping has severely eroded the national consensus and accelerated the emergence of deep disagreements in public opinion over strategic issues, such as the nature of the state (Jewish? Democratic?), the main challenges facing the nation (including the best way of dealing with the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict), and the desired collective future.
KW - Ashkenazi
KW - Identity politics
KW - Israel
KW - Israeli arabs
KW - Israeli-palestinian conflict
KW - Left-right division
KW - National consensus
KW - Public opinion
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111894687&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190675585.013.15
DO - 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190675585.013.15
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AN - SCOPUS:85111894687
SP - 247
EP - 264
BT - The Oxford Handbook of Israeli Politics and Society
PB - Oxford University Press
ER -