After months of polling, researching, and analyzing collected data, the Israel Defense Security Forum (IDSF), known in Hebrew as Habithonistim, has released the findings of its National Survey. It examined the attitudes of Israel’s Arab citizens toward Israel in the wake of the May 2021 operation “Guardian of the Walls,” between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas. On the sidelines of the war, violent riots broke out in mixed Jewish-Arab cities and towns, in which many people were injured, stores were looted and public properties were vandalized.
IDSF-Habithonistim – Protectors of Israel, is a security-oriented movement consisting of over 4,200 retired and reserve officers, commanders, and soldiers from all branches of the IDF and the Israeli security and intelligence community.
Or Yissachar, IDSF head of research, tells Majalla, that “the IDSF sees itself as a pan-Israeli, Zionist movement. 15% of our members belong to the Druze, Bedouin and Arab communities, all of whom are veterans including senior IDF officers such as Maj. Gen. (res.) Kamil Abu Rukun and Brig. Gen. (res.) Imad Fares.
Startling Findings
A total of 1,068 Israeli citizens, both Jews, and Arabs aged 18 and over, were asked questions in relation to their sense of security, governance and national loyalty. The IDSF founder and CEO, Brigadier General (res.) Amir Avivi, explains the main purpose behind the survey: “We wanted to learn more about how people feel inside Israel after the attack that we saw last year, these pogroms we saw in the mixed cities…We understand that there’s an issue with personal security, and sovereignty in the cities. We wanted to measure that. We wanted to really understand what’s going on in both the Jewish society and the Arab society.”
Some of the findings were already anticipated by the IDSF but others were both unexpected and new. The national survey found that a large majority of Arab Israelis are consistently conflicted by questions of identity and national loyalty.
On the question of the Jewish people's sovereign right to live in the Land of Israel, an overwhelming majority of 75% of Israel’s Arab citizens responded that Jews have no right to sovereignty in the Land of Israel. Brig. Gen. Avivi says, “This is a huge number. It surprised us. We knew there was a problem. We didn’t realize that the problem is so big”.
On the theme of “if Israel would be attacked by a neighboring country, whom would you side with,” the survey found that a large majority, 51%, responded that they would not support either side. About 23% said they will side with the attacking country, compared with 26% who would support Israel.
Surprisingly, on the issue of public trust and faith in the police, the gap closed between all citizens of Israel: 66% of Israelis said they do not trust the police while among Israeli Arabs the number is 73%. The poll further showed that 71% of Arab Israelis said they have little or no sense of personal safety, while 44% of Jewish Israelis said the same.
On the issue of public safety, i.e., the government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's plan to establish a National Guard, the poll found that 66% of the general public support the move, including 44% of Arab Israelis, 37% of whom would be willing to join its ranks in case of riots – within the Jewish sector, support for conscription to the national guard stands at about 54%.
Asked about the 2021 riots and disruptions in Israel's mixed cities, 53% of Arab Israelis and 88% of Jewish Israelis said the root cause stemmed from national and/or religious issues. This may be compared to 22% of Arab Israelis who said they believe the riots were fueled by socio-economic factors.
Yissachar pointed out that IDSF’s finding is “simply laying the facts on the table: there are still profound and authentic gaps between the conflicting and overlapping narratives, the Jewish one and the Arab one. Many Israeli Arabs consider themselves as Palestinians and relate to the Palestinian cause, participate in rallies waving the Palestinian flags as we recently saw in Jerusalem, Lod and Tel Aviv, carry out terrorist attacks such as the ones in Beer Sheva and Hadera, and experience serious internal conflict regarding their Arab-Israeli identity.”
However, Yissachar continues that the IDSF is not saying that “Israeli Arabs are all uniform, a large part of them just prefer to quietly live their lives in peace and security…There is a tendency to always blame the majority for the deeds of the minority, however violent and extremist they may be. Certainly, Israel has been debating on the way it regards its Arab population, but that is not because of the "tyranny of the majority," but the opposition of the minority. Arab Israelis cannot "hold the stick on both ends" - subvert Israel's identity and sovereignty while enjoying equal rights and fewer duties.”
Iran and Taking Advantage of Palestinian Cause
According to the IDSF, “the biggest threat Israel is facing right now is being ill-prepared for a scenario in which there is a meeting of the two vectors representing the external and internal threats to its national security: an external attack with thousands of rockets, missiles and armed UAVs from Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and even Iraq and Yemen, combined with high-intensity internal uprising and riots on the part of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.
Alongside that, Iran's constant efforts to develop a nuclear weapon represent the largest existential threat to Israel's national security. In that regard, the Abraham Accords certainly added to Israel's strategic envelope and united the region under a like-minded coalition composed of an unprecedented Israeli-Arab coalition led by the United States,” explains Yissachar.
Iranian support in the Palestinian arena is largely focused on: providing funds and armaments for military activates towards Israel; financing existing organizations like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ); assisting in the formation of new armed cells; and, paying large sums of money to recruit suicide bombers and gunmen to carry out attacks against Israel.
More or less, Iran mainly has two goals for the Palestinians by the continued arming of the various Palestinian militant groups. The first is to foment continued violence between the Palestinians and Israelis in order to prevent a peaceful resolution to the conflict, which would deprive Iran of a vehicle to export the Islamic Revolution.
Second, arming the Palestinians enables Iran to play one faction against another, allowing Iran to maintain leverage over the various Palestinian groups and thereby the Palestinian nationalist movement as a whole, bringing them into line with its foreign policy objectives.
In late 2017, Azzam Al-Ahmad, the head of Fatah’s reconciliation talks with Hamas, accused Iran and PIJ of intra-Palestinian disunity, saying Iran is “the number one sponsor of division…it seems that one of the conditions for the resumption of Iranian aid to Hamas is the continuation of the division.”
In 2018, similar words were echoed by Fatah’s official spokesman, Osama Al-Qawasmi, who added, “Not a single Palestinian has seen or heard of Iranian support at all. We have not seen or heard of Iran’s trying to build a school, university, or hospital, or any development project. If some Iranians think that their support for a particular party constitutes support for the Palestinian people, that’s a big mistake. Iran, by supporting Hamas, is not supporting the Palestinian people at all.”
However, Iran has failed to gain any noticeable support within the Palestinian public both in the West Bank and inside Israel. But that hasn’t deterred Iran from seizing any opportunity to incite and inflame tensions between Palestinians and Israelis. As recently as Jerusalem Day on May 29, 2022, Iranian-affiliated Arabic-speaking media outlets were airing lies such as – Zionist settlers attempting to break into Al-Aqsa Mosque, mass Jewish prayers taking place at the Al-Aqsa compound and, the Israeli authority wants to demolish Al-Aqsa Mosque and build the Third Temple on top of it.
Brig. Gen. Avivi, says, "We confront a worrisome reality – A lack of governance in the Negev, a divided public, a lack of a sense of security, an impending nuclear agreement, and Hamas dispatching terrorist attacks from Judea and Samaria. These challenges require us to mobilize as security experts and understand the reality in order to act together as officers and security experts to reflect the worrisome reality and to take steps for a widespread mobilization, as we are doing within the Habithonistim Movement.”
The Abraham Accords have created new defense, investment, and political opportunities and brought together Israel and its Arab partners, resulting in a beneficial impact on the region as it faces enormous pressure from Iran and its army of proxies across the region. There is no doubt that “Iran could not have had a heavier headache than this united regional front against it. In large part, Iran was the unifying factor behind this step, a common threat leading to closer ranks,” adds Yissachar.
However, Iran is continuing with its quest of taking advantage of the slightest conflict between Israelis and Palestinians to add more fuel to the fire. Using the words of Brigadier General Avivi it is a “worrisome reality,” and IDSF’s findings in themselves raise concerns not only about what the future may hold for Arabs and Jews in Israel but also the wider ramifications on the region as a whole.
The findings of IDSF’s national survey, as Or Yissachar put it, “simply lay the facts on the table.” However, it begs the question, where we go from here, and is the Israeli government going to take these findings seriously by addressing why its Arab citizens feel the way they do? Otherwise, these findings are another opportunity for Iran and Hamas to use to fan the flames of discord and hatred.
