Poll: 77% of Israeli Arabs would rather live in Israel than in any other country in the world

Ha'aretz ^ | 16:53 23/06/2008 | By Bradley Burston, Haaretz Correspondent

[Cinnamon Girl]

A recent opinion poll conducted by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government found that 77 percent of Israeli Arabs would rather live in Israel than in any other country in the world.

The survey of 1,721 Israelis, both Arab and Jewish, also showed that 73 percent of the Jews and 94 percent of the Arabs want Israel to "be a society in which Arab and Jewish citizens have mutual respect and equal opportunities."

The Kennedy School said in a statement that the poll produced a number of results it termed surprising, pointing to a higher level of co-existence than might have been anticipated.

The research comes at a period of simmering tensions in some sectors of the Arab-Jewish divide within Israel.

The release of the poll coincided with celebrations, accompanied by widespread Israeli Arab boycotts, of the 60th anniversary of the state's declaration of independence.

[Jeb21]

If you’re going to put up a straw man argument, you should at least have some skill at it.

Here’s a history lesson for you. Once upon a time, there was a Roman Emperor named Hadrian. Jews were revolting against the Ancient Roman Fascists, and Hadrian did not like that. So he snuffed out the Jewish revolt, and afterwards, renamed the land. The land of Israel was a province of Rome at the time called Syria Iudea. Hadrian renamed it Syria Palestina after the Philistines, the ancient arch-enemies of the Jews. Hadrian thought that this would be the final psychological blow to the Jews, and that the Jewish presence there would be erased forever.

Needless to say he was wrong, and unsuccessful. Jews STILL remained a presence in all of the big cities of Israel. According to a Christian pilgrim named Reland, who wrote a book in Latin chronicling his trip to the land of Israel, in 1695 the majority of residences in the land weren’t Muslims, but Jews! Mark Twain famously wrote in his book “Innocents Abroad” that when he went to see the Holy Land in 1867, he found it to be a “desolate country,” with very few people in it. Take note that this was before the Zionist pioneers came to the land.

[Cinnamon Girl]

Did you know that Jews were living in Israel before the state, too? Here are some links regarding the history of Jews in Israel: http://www.science.co.il/Israel-history.asp, http://www.isragen.org.il/eiri/index.html

Also, Michael Medved has a tape on the history of Israel which you can hear. If you think Jewish presence in Israel started with statehood, you have a lot to learn yet.