Poll: Most Israelis see themselves as Jewish first, Israeli second

[oberliner]

Excerpts:

The majority of the study was bases on an ongoing survey, taken by the Guttman Center among the Jewish sector in the country.

Those taking part were asked to rate the way they perceived their identity according to importance, and so 47% said they were Jewish, 39% said they were Israeli, 10% based their identity according on their religious affiliation and 4% according to their ethnic denomination.

<snip>

As for the Arab sector, the polling data showed that the majority of Israeli Arab see themselves as Palestinian or as Arab, and only a minor percentage of the sector see themselves as Israeli: Forty-five percent said they were Arab, 24% think of themselves as Palestinians, 19% define themselves by their religious affiliation and only 12% said they were Israelis.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3540049,00.html

[UndertheOcean]

1. whatever, they are human first , wether they like it or not

all of us are human , all too human

[ProgressiveMuslim]

2. Fascinating that religion was a distant third in the Arab sector. nt

[azurnoir]

3. Is this an Israeli phenomena?

I guess I could be wrong but I just do not see similar results happening happening just about anywhere else. Israel it seems could have an "identity" problem of sorts, if most of its citizens put their national identity secondary to another.

[Phx_Dem]

4. I wonder how Americans would poll

I think many Americans would list Christianity first.

[notfullofit]

5. Yes, you are correct. nt

[azurnoir]

6. I would hope your wrong

it might depend on what part of the country was polled

[notfullofit]

7. Christians

live in all parts of the USA so it would not matter which part was polled.

[azurnoir]

8. Yes it would

OK I looked at your profile, you live in the BIBLE BELT (if I could change to a "scary" font for that I would) I live in Minnesota while yes there are Christians in both places the type and tone of Christian is for the most part very different, trust me on that.

[notfullofit]

13. At the moment

I do live in the biblebelt but it is not my place of birth.
I have lived in Geneva NY, Kansas City KS, Hampton Roads VA, Thousand Oaks CA, Dallas TX, Tupelo MS and Burlington VT.

Guess what????????
The Holy Bible was the exact same Book in all those places.
I found no different 'tone' in any of them.

[azurnoir]

14. The Bible may be the same book in all those places

it is the people reading it who are different or perhaps what various people read into it. I could give you another example albeit non-religious- A Kurdish friend of ours decided to move to Nashville TN because there is a large Kurdish community there and one of his relatives was starting a business there, he lasted 6 months before he returned what he said was that while yes there was a sizable Kurdish community in Nashville ones movement was restricted to that community and when he would go outside of that community he was met with hostility, sometimes quiet, sometimes open, he said here I can go anywhere I want and everyone is friendly. Why this is I am not sure, but this the same city that produced Paul Wellstone. The major Christian denomination here is ELC which is kind of liberal Lutheran.

[Shaktimaan]

9. It's not the same thing.

According to the Israel poll only 10% defined themselves according to their religious affiliation. It is important to remember not to define Judaism as a religion in the same manner as Christianity. Identifying oneself as Jewish is more akin to the Israeli Arab preference of defining themselves as Arab first and foremost. While religion is a common thread running through Jewish identity, the way it is used here it also contains aspects of an ethnicity, a nationality and a culture. Being Arab similarly transcends easily categorized definitions.

I would be willing to bet you that most Americans would list "American" first, and then either "Christian" or a specific nationality, ie: Italian, Irish, etc., second. Identity is a complex thing and just because people view themselves primarily as one thing does not mean that they view their secondary identities as any less important or fulfilling. For instance I would consider myself as a Jew first, before anything else. But that does not mean that I don't love America or would rather live in any country over this one. My identity is merely bisected between a ethnic/cultural one, which has shaped most of my personality, and a national one, which affects me less so on a day to day basis.

Especially since I do live in America my identification with Judaism helps me to better differentiate myself, as I live in a huge country where everyone else is also American, but overwhelmingly Christian. It has nothing to do with religion for me, as it probably doesn't for most of the Israelis polled. (Considering that 50% of Israelis are very secular.)

[Phx_Dem]

10. I don't like these articles about polls

because we need to be able to see the exact polled questions, not read about someone's impressions.

From the article:

"Those taking part were asked to rate the way they perceived their identity according to importance, and so 47% said they were Jewish, 39% said they were Israeli, 10% based their identity according on their religious affiliation and 4% according to their ethnic denomination."

The numbers don't make sense, what did the other 86% base their identity on?




edit--I just re-read what I wrote, the problem is that there seems to be categorical problems with the way the results are being stated, the 4 different identities (from the quote) are not equivalent.

[oberliner]

11. This link may be helpful

http://www.idi.org.il/sites/english/parliament/Pages/Whoarewe.aspx

[Phx_Dem]

12. thanks nt