In a choice between waiting until an agreement with the Palestinians is reached and the idea of unilateral separation that the prime minister recently raised - in his view, a necessary step given the lack of cooperation by the Palestinian side - a majority of the Jewish public prefer immediate separation. However, the price it is prepared to pay in this context in terms of evacuating settlements is much lower than the concessions it is prepared for in the context of a peace agreement.
About half support evacuating the settlements in Gaza and the isolated settlements in the West Bank/Judea and Samaria in the context of such a unilateral program, but only about one-fourth support evacuating most of the West Bank settlements in such a framework. As part of a peace agreement, however, there is almost full agreement to evacuating all the settlements in Gaza and a large majority are also prepared, in the framework of the agreement, to evacuate most of the West Bank settlements.
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On a different issue that recently returned to the agenda, namely, refusal to serve among reserve soldiers, this time as well we found very broad agreement against taking such a step in protest against government policy (a majority also oppose right-wingers refusing to take part in evacuating settlements should the government decide to take such a step).
The broad opposition to refusal is especially interesting in light of the finding that the Jewish public is split down the middle regarding the frequency of cases of harsh and inconsiderate treatment by IDF soldiers of Palestinian civilians in the territories, but the common view is that if such cases indeed occur, they should be treated with the same severity as if they involved Israeli civilians - and yet the system does not treat them with great severity, or at all.
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Seventy-one percent of the Jews agree with Netanyahu's statement that the Israeli Arabs constitute a demographic danger, although 52 percent feel it is improper for a government minister to express himself in this way about a group of citizens of the state (42 percent think the statement was proper and 6 percent do not know). The broad agreement with Netanyahu's words is apparently reinforced by a combination of the view that the Israeli Arabs' basic loyalty is to the Palestinian side, and views on the question of to what extent the state of Israel discriminates against them. The prevalent assessment is that especially in the political area but in the economic area as well, they receive all or most of what they deserve as citizens. Thus, 77 percent of the Jewish respondents said the Israeli Arabs receive all or most of the political rights they are entitled to (compared to 57 percent in September 1999), and 60 percent believed so regarding their economic rights (in the previous measurement, 50 percent). Note that 54 percent of the interviewees stated that in their view the Arabs should have equal political rights to the Jews (in September 1999, 46 percent thought so), whereas 44 percent said they do not deserve equal rights to the Jews in this domain (50 percent in the previous measurement). As for economic rights, today 57 percent favor equal economic rights for the Arabs (compared to 60 percent in 1999), whereas 41 percent oppose granting equal rights in this area and believe the Jews deserve more rights (37 percent in the previous measurement).
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As for the repeated publications by journalists and various human rights organizations about cases of inhumane treatment of Palestinian civilians by IDF soldiers, it appears that they have not changed the Jewish public's assessment of the frequency of these cases. At present, 41 percent believe such cases occur quite often or very often and 39 percent believe that they occur only infrequently or quite infrequently (20 percent do not know); ....
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