Israeli Attitudes Research Articles

Cross-cultural perspectives on intelligent assistive technology in dementia care: comparing Israeli and German experts’ attitudes

BackgroundDespite the great benefits of intelligent assistive technology (IAT) for dementia care – for example, the enhanced safety and increased independence of people with dementia and their caregivers – its practical adoption is still limited. The social and ethical issues pertaining to IAT in dementia care, shaped by factors such as culture, may explain these limitations. However, most studies have focused on understanding these issues within one cultural setting only. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore and compare the attitudes of Israeli and German dementia experts toward IAT in dementia care, to contribute to a more cultural-comparative perspective.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 experts (15 Israelis and 20 Germans) in key roles in health and community services for people with dementia as well as in the fields of dementia and IAT (e.g., computer science, electrical/biomedical engineering, ethics, nursing, and gerontology). Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data.FindingsIsraeli and German experts identified the same social accelerators in the development and implementation of IAT in dementia care (i.e., changes in family structure and social digitization) and benefits of adopting IAT (e.g., enhancing the safety of people with dementia and increasing their independence). However, there were differences in inhibitor/risk assessments between the two groups. Namely, economic considerations and the cognitive capacity of people with dementia were identified by both groups as inhibitors, while Israeli experts additionally reported stigma and ageism. Whereas both groups agreed that IAT might reduce human connection, and that the technology is not yet reliable enough, German experts highlighted concerns regarding privacy; in contrast, Israeli experts prioritized safety over privacy.ConclusionsOur research findings allow for the identification of relevant similarities but also important differences between German and Israeli experts’ perspectives. As such, an important basis has been provided for a more in-depth discussion regarding where, why, and how culturally-sensitive technology development is needed.

Stigma, Treatment Effectiveness, and Policy: Exploring Jewish Israeli Attitudes Towards Addiction Based on a National Sample

Stigma, Treatment Effectiveness, and Policy: Exploring Jewish Israeli Attitudes Towards Addiction Based on a National Sample

A socio-legal deconstruction of homicide victims and perpetrators: Israeli femicide case law

Abstract This interpretive paper explores the ways in which criminal law is applied to femicide victims and perpetrators and how it socially constructs and legitimizes gender-based violence in the form of femicide (the killing of a woman), when applying the doctrine of provocation. In doing so the paper discusses the socio-cultural underpinnings of the criminal legal mitigation available for defendants who claim to have killed their wives while being provoked. Conceptualizing the critical deconstruction within gendered socio-cultural predispositions and ensuing criminal legal doctrine and social norms, the paper demonstrates the ways in which Israeli social norms, attitudes and beliefs towards sexual jealousy, matrimony, loss of control, morality, gender and homicide – are entangled and intertwined in the structure and function of Israeli criminal law. The paper offers a critical analysis of the underlying discriminating gendered basic assumptions that structure current Israeli application of the doctrine of provocation and the way in which such a socio-legal structure constructs the Israeli ‘unfaithful’ woman, and her corresponding ‘reasonable’, and ‘normative’, so to speak, killer. Such men are considered less morally guilty when they kill ‘unfaithful’ women, consequently awarded lenient convictions and sentences. At the same time, Israeli women are blamed for morally instigating and provoking their own killing – thus precipitating their gruesome, premature and undue death. As the Israeli criminal legal structure is deeply rooted in English common law, its substantive criminal doctrine of provocation is widely shared by many countries. In this respect the paper's exploration of Israeli criminal doctrine of provocation may provide a significant contribution to socio-legal discourse in many other countries with legal structures similarly steeped in English common law.

Review Essay: Israeli Attitudes on Civil Rights, Democracy and Arab-Jewish Relations

Israeli Attitudes on Civil Rights, Democracy and Arab-Jewish Relations Theodore Sasson (bio) Neha Sahgal and Alan Cooperman, Israel's Religiously Divided Society, Pew Research Center, 2016 (236 pp). Sammy Smooha, Still Playing by the Rules: Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel (Haifa, 2017) (366 pp). Tamar Hermann, Israel Democracy Index, (Israel Democracy Institute, 2016) (307 pp). In March 2016, the Pew Research Center released "Israel's Religiously Divided Society", a much-anticipated report on the attitudes and practices of Israeli Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze. Although focused on religion and designed partly to enable comparison with the 2013 Pew report on American Jewry, the Israeli study captured press attention for its striking findings on the attitudes of Israeli Jews toward Arabs. The study reported that 48% of Israeli Jews favored expulsion of Arabs from Israel, and 79% believed Israeli Jews should enjoy preferential treatment. The British newspaper, The Independent, reported the story under the headline, "Nearly half of Israeli Jews believe in ethnic cleansing".1 The American Jewish newspaper The Forward led with the finding that "Almost half of all Israeli Jews are in favor of transferring or expelling the state's Arab population," a fact the newspaper described as "staggering".2 Writing in the Huffington Post, Arab American Institute president James Zogby summed up the study's main contribution: "With 8 in 10 Israeli Jews supporting [End Page 217] preferential treatment for themselves at the expense of the 20% of the population that is Arab and with almost one-half of Israeli Jews calling for Arab citizens to be expelled or transferred—we can only conclude that this is a society and a political culture that is in trouble."3 The news headlines fit neatly with the Pew Research Center's own framing of the survey results. In a "Fact Tank" blog published simultaneously with the study, Pew flagged the finding on expelling Arabs as one of the survey's "7 Key Findings".4 The Pew report and much of the press coverage duly noted that other surveys had reported discrepant findings, singling out, in particular, University of Haifa's Sammy Smooha's "Index of Arab-Jewish Relations" (IAJR) and Tamar Hermann's "Israel Democracy Index" (IDI). As it happens, both professors Smooha and Hermann fielded new surveys in the same year as Pew and reported their findings in book-length monographs. This review essay examines the findings of the three surveys on the topics of civil rights, democracy, and Arab-Jewish relations in Israel. Most years since 2003, Smooha surveyed Arab citizens and Jewish Israelis on their views of one another and the state. The 2017 report, Still Playing by the Rules, describes findings of a survey conducted during May, June, and July 2015.5 Smooha frames the report with an historical narrative of the development of Arab society in the state of Israel. During the first decades of Israeli statehood, Arabs who remained in Israel after 1948 were subjected to widespread confiscation of lands and military rule. In the years since, Arab citizens of the state developed as a linguistic, cultural, and religious minority. They held a subordinate class position, wielded limited political power, and were subject to governmental, housing, and employment discrimination. Despite this harsh history, Arab citizens generally avoided political violence. This is because, as Smooha has argued in numerous articles as well as the IAJR surveys, Israel's democratic institutions enabled the Arab minority to struggle for improved status through contentious politics rather than violence, and because Arabs recognized and appreciated the benefits of living in an advanced and stable country. In recent years, a complex balance of forces has shaped Arab-Jewish relations. On the one hand, the Gaza wars and the rhetoric of right wing politicians in the last election—including the prime minister's notorious plea to his voters to turnout at the polls to offset the Arab vote—have contributed to feelings of alienation. On the other, Arab citizens have increasingly viewed Israel as a stable country in a region upended by civil war, and they have achieved substantial upward mobility, through higher education and by moving into white-collar occupations. [End...

The Difficult Path of an Israeli Revisionist Historian: Benny Morris and the 1948 War

This article describes the path taken by Israeli revisionist historian, Benny Morris, from the early 1980s to 2004, in his research on the major historical event of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – the 1948 Palestinian exodus. Methodologically, the article uses mostly primary sources such as interviews with Morris, journalists, scholars, 1948 War veterans, and members of state institutions, as well as printed materials such as newspaper articles, textbooks and NGO publications -- in addition to secondary sources in the form of relevant studies. The article describes, inter alia, the obstacles Morris encountered in acquiring funds for his research and in getting it published, the attitude toward his findings among Israeli-Jews, Palestinians, and the international community, controversies he took part in, as well as his impact on the Israeli attitudes toward the exodus and the approach of Palestinian scholars towards their history.

The Use of Force: Israeli Public Opinion on Military Options

This article analyzes Israeli attitudes toward the use of force over the period from 1988 to 1994. Based on nine public opinion polls of Israel's Jewish population, it explores public trends on three dimensions of force use-conventional war, Intifada, and terrorism-and contributes new data to the theoretical and empirical debate over the stability and rationality of public opinion. Following the presentation of an aggregate analysis of general public attitudes, party affiliation and socioeconomic variables are examined for their relationship to the viewpoints of the respondents. The profiles of those holding extreme views on military force are investigated as well. In general, Israeli attitudes toward the use of force were stable over time, and Israelis were cautious in their support of using force. Indeed, the findings strengthen the claim that public opinion can constrain belligerent leaders, although it can be manipulated to support limited uses of force.

Let the Germans Win? Israeli Attitudes towards Die Mannschaft during The 2014 World Cup Tournament

To contribute to analyses of the sport-politics nexus, the study examines Jewish-Israeli attitudes toward the German soccer team and Germany. The analysis reveals that more Israelis root against the German soccer team than support it, despite the team’s impressive achievements. The analysis of attitudes toward Germany surprisingly reveals that the 18–20 age group expressed the strongest animosity towards Germany, which may indicate that Israeli government attempts to instill the Holocaust memory in the young generations perpetuates animosity between young Israelis and Germany. The study strengthens the notion that international sport games represent and extend rather than reduce international tensions.

An American Military Organization or a European Political Alliance? Israeli Views of NATO

“Israel is NATO—we are the West. We are the same.”Benjamin Netanyahu, 2007In a January 2016 national survey of Israeli attitudes toward Europe and the European Union (EU), 45 percent of those surve...

(Non)acknowledgment of rights as a barrier to conflict resolution: Predicting Jewish Israeli attitudes towards the Palestinian demand for national self-determination

A major barrier to resolution of asymmetric conflicts is the unwillingness of the stronger side to see the out-group as having the right to national self-determination. In the context of the conflict between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, we investigate psychological factors related to this barrier. We first review the threat and dehumanization two-factor model that was developed by Maoz and McCauley to explain Jewish Israeli support of aggressive acts towards Palestinians that hinder the resolution of the conflict. Using this model, we then explore the extent to which perceived threat and dehumanization also predict – together with other ideological and demographic variables – Jewish Israeli attitudes towards Palestinian demands for national self-determination. Implications of the findings for the “barriers” approach in settings of asymmetrical conflict are discussed.

Israeli Attitudes on Synagogue and State

AbstractThis article investigates the attitudes of Israeli Jews on the proper relationship between religion and the state, using data from the 2009 Israeli National Election Study. Specifically we test whether association with the secular or religious communities structures mass attitudes on this important dimension of Israeli politics. Mass level disagreement in this area dates back to the pre-state period and represents a longstanding cleavage in Zionist thought and Israeli politics. We find that mass attitudes toward religion and public life are associated with religious observance and identification with religious parties and social groups.

Between Eyal and Axel, Yahweh and Christ: The Theological Sub-Text of <em>Walk on Water</em> (2004)

The stereotypical character of Walk on Water (Israel, 2004) has represented a severe obstacle for many viewers, who have been quick to denounce it as both trite and superficial. This article argues instead that the film’s clearly intentional and self-conscious recycling of numerous cliches concerning Germans and Israelis alike points to its deeper meaning and purpose. In particular, it shows that these cliches constitute the essential infrastructure with which the film engages and attempts to resolve the problematic German–Israeli, and by extension Christian–Jewish, relationship in the aftermath of the Holocaust. It further suggests that the film offers its own “final solution” to this vexed relationship—a “messianic” deliverance from the respective traumas of each party—in the form of an allegorical synthesis of Jewish and Christian theology, directly reflected in the contrasts and evolving relationship between its two primary characters. Itself highly stereotypical, the theology upon which the film draws facilitates its critique of German and especially Israeli attitudes toward power and violence.

Between Optimism and Pessimism: Israeli Attitudes Toward Conflict Resolution in the Post-Oslo Era

The Oslo Accords failed to end Israeli-Palestinian violence and led to a final settlement of the conflict. This article examines Israeli attitudes toward conflict resolution and argues that the peace process, despite its setbacks, has increased Israeli support for certain concessions. While support for the “Oslo Process” may have declined, Jewish Israeli acceptance of the creation of a Palestinian state has risen dramatically. Israelis remain committed to continuing the peace process, they just remain highly skeptical that the process will succeed. The article examines the sources of this skepticism. Both lack of trust in Arab aspirations and religiosity are the primary determinants of Israeli unwillingness to make concessions for peace. Trust is tied to present conditions rather than past conditions of conflict. Thus, if trust could be rebuilt, Israeli Jews would be considerably better poised to make political and territorial concessions for peace than they were at the start of the “Oslo Process.” Although the relative fertility rates of Orthodox Jews, compared to secular Jews, might undermine long-term support for peace, this might be counterbalanced by the growing dovishness of young secular Russians socialized in Israel.

Preferring balanced vs. advantageous peace agreements: A study of Israeli attitudes towards a two state solution

AbstractThe paper extends research on fixed-pie perceptions by suggesting that disputants may prefer proposals that are perceived to be equally attractive to both parties (i.e., balanced) rather than one-sided, because balanced agreements are seen as more likely to be successfully implemented. We test our predictions using data on Israeli support for the Geneva Accords, an agreement for a two state solution negotiated by unofficial delegations of Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 2003. The results demonstrate that Israelis are more likely to support agreements that are seen favorably by other Israelis, but — contrary to fixed-pie predictions — Israeli support for the accords does not diminish simply because a majority of Palestinians favors (rather than opposes) the accords. We show that implementation concerns create a demand among Israelis for balance in the degree to which each side favors (or opposes) the agreement. The effect of balance is noteworthy in that it creates considerable support for proposals even when a majority of Israelis and Palestinians oppose the deal.

Converging Political Cultures: How Globalization is Shaping the Discourses of American and Israeli Jews

We examine the impact of globalization on Israeli and American Jews' attitudes regarding religious pluralism and minority civil rights in Israel. Studying middle-class Israeli and American Jews of European descent, we find overlap across (and differentiation within) the groups. We attribute political cultural convergence to globalization: (1) international travel; (2) diffusion of Jewish transnational institutions; (3) increased integration of Israel into global capitalist relations; and (4) perceived security threats moving American Jews toward increased security concerns for themselves and Israel. We perceive new patterns of transnational engagement in which Israeli and American Jews seek common cause with their like-minded counterparts.

Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel and the Internal Refugees: Essays in Memory of Edward W. Said (review)

Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel and the Internal Refugees: Essays in Memory of Edward W. Said, edited by Nur Masalha. London & New York: Zed Books, 2005. 300pp. $18.95. Catastrophe Remembered is an anthology that forthrightly presents the narrative and sense of victimization at the hands of victorious Zionists and Israelis. The volume is dedicated to the memory of the Palestinian-American literary scholar, Edward Said; its essays both salute and draw upon Said's contributions to literary theory and to studies, and they continue Said's legacy of articulate advocacy on behalf of the Palestinians. Readers sympathetic to Said will recognize this anthology as a worthy tribute to this prominent engage intellectual. Its eleven articles, written by scholars and journalists of Palestinian, Israeli, and international origin, address a number of controversial issues: the birth of Israel and the resulting internal refugees, their history, the legacy of their habitations and names, the uses of memory, the special significance of oral histories, the development of identity, and Israeli attitudes to memory. Said's detractors, on the other hand, are many. Some of these critics have viewed Said with deep suspicion, and others have vilified him with the title Professor Terror-whether for the incitement they perceived in his outspoken views or for having once committed the offense of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers across the Lebanese border. These readers will find little to impress them in this volume, or to change their minds about who is to blame for the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli impasse. But for anyone who is open to learning more about aspects of the conflict that relate to Israel's Arab citizens and the social and historical issues that affect them, this anthology is a valuable introduction to a greater body of literature. The core of the collection is the section on Palestinian Oral History and Memory. This is a key entry-point for anyone wishing to understand the narrative and how it is distinct from its rival Zionist-Israeli counterpart, which is much more embedded in diplomatic documents and written memoirs (zikhronot). The essay by Mahmoud 'Issa, a refugee historian living in Denmark, illustrates why oral history is so central to the narrative. During the Oslo years 'Issa returned for the first time with a group of Palestinians from Denmark to Lubya, the Galilean village of their origin, and he movingly recorded their spontaneous responses to revisiting the place of their youth. As a peasant society, it still flowed with the rhythms of the seasons, sowing and planting, cultivating and harvesting. The visitors recalled the surfaces of the land in astounding detail; they remembered the local folklore. Pieced together, their various recollections corroborated each other, revealing a distinct existence centered on village and clan. The reader begins to sense the enormity of their sense of loss. One particularly eye-opening contribution to this anthology is by Eitan Bronstein, who writes about Israeli-Jewish awareness of the catastrophe-known in Arabic as al-Nakba. Through his organization Zokhrot (Hebrew for remembering in the feminine plural form, to deliberately underline its non-hegemonic, conciliatory undertones), Bronstein is committed to teaching the history of the Palestinians and their commemoration of the Nakba to Israeli Jews. …

Israeli Holocaust Memorial Strategies at Yad Vashem: From Silence to Recognition

Yad Vashem is the living site of Israeli national Holocaust memory, where every generation of Israelis adds another memorial to an evolving landscape. The memorials installed from 1953 until the late 1970s are either figural or minimalist in style and focus on the fighters, heroes, and martyrs of the Holocaust. Those installed since the 1980s, in contrast, tend to be conceptual or installation-oriented, often employing visual strategies of absence and disorientation—what one may call postmodern approaches—and are dedicated to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. This essay traces the development of memorials at Yad Vashem in relation to changes in Israeli attitudes toward the Holocaust, survivors, and their traumas: from silence and shame to understanding and even sympathy.1 At stake is the potential for memorials to provide a framework for trauma in visual form.2

A Religious Orthodox Women's Revolution: The Case of Kolech (1998-2005)

At the turn of the twenty-first century, educated feminist religious Jewish women who regard themselves as obligated to observe Halacha and to adhere to the framework of patriarchal institutions feel torn and frustrated. They want to continue to maintain uncompromising loyalty to their families, congregations, and communities, and at the same time make exhaustive efforts to modify the Jewish religious system from within and invest it with new, egalitarian content. This article describes the emergence of KolechReligious Women's Forum, an organization founded by Israeli religious feminist women in 1998. Kolech aims at producing new answers to these pressing dilemmas. The article discusses the possibility of combining feminist concepts with patriarchal traditions, analyzes Kolechs strategy and newly adopted proposals, and examines Israeli attitudes toward this organization.

Christianity in Modern Israel

Christians in the Holy Land are a tiny minority of the population, though extremely heterogeneous in both denominational adherence and nationality. Roman Catholics are in the minority among Christians, the majority being Orthodox, but the Israeli perception of Christians tends to be that they belong to the Catholic Church. In the last ten years there has been an influx of Russian immigrants (now totalling in the region of one million, 17 per cent of the population, with little difficulty in assimilating to Israeli society) and of Ethiopians. Some immigrants profess to be Jewish only for the purpose of obtaining immediate Israeli citizenship. This paper addresses particularly the current social, cultural, political and theological status of these immigrants, as well as giving an overall account of the political, social and cultural environment and the gradually changing Israeli attitudes toward Christians and Christianity. Here also is a glimpse of the prevailing and gradually changing Christian attitudes toward Jews and Judaism.

SHOULD BIBLE STUDIES REMAIN IN ISRAELI PUBLIC SCHOOLS? TEACHERS ATTITUDES TOWARD BIBLE TEACHING AS A MANDATORY SUBJECT

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview and analysis of attitudes of Israeli K-12 educators and bible teachers toward religious studies. Teachers attitudes toward bible teaching as a mandatory subject are, on the whole, positive throughout the country. The present study addresses the absence of systematic research into the opinions of bible teachers, their worldviews and critical thinking, and how these impact their teaching in practice. The author s findings were integrated within the formulation of a theoretical framework that examined the mainstreams in the cultural-religious structure of Israeli society. Bible studies appear to serve functional needs, and their presence in the Israeli school curriculum is motivated by pragmatic values, not necessarily by religious passion.

Israeli Attitudes about Inter Vivos

Using data from the 1994-95 Survey of Families in Israel - which includes 1,607 urban Jewish respondents interviewed on topics relating to work behavior, household income, wealth, assistance received from parents and given to children, and views about financial responsibilities between parents and children - the authors examined attitudes in Israel about intergenerational assistance and the effects of these attitudes on transfer decisions by parents. Views about parental obligations are likely not independent of a country's economic and social organization. In a country with an extensive program of public assistance for young adults, for example, there may be less need for private family transfers and less of a sense of parental responsibility for providing support. Similarly, where young couples face severe liquidity constraints or otherwise require substantial resources in order to begin a household, parental feelings of obligation might be heightened. Israel is a country in which the need for parental support is high and the level of parental involvement in the financial lives of young adults is often considerable.