Are there differences between Israeli Jewish and Israeli Arab expectations from the peace process?
The feeling in the Jewish public is that if we are making territorial concessions, we don’t want to compromise over the Jewish identity of the State. This means that whoever expects progress with the peace process to bring about total equality in the relations between Jewish and Arab population within the State, is making a terrible error. Arab expectations are that when the peace process becomes a fait accompli, obstacles to full equality for the Arabs in Israel will be removed. This is very unrealistic when you look at the attitudes within the Jewish population. As regards winning internal equality here for the Arabs, not in terms of budgets, but regarding their ability to influence the collective, opinion polls and personal interviews with Jews show that even if the peace process moves forward, the Arabs will face the same barriers, or bigger ones. In August/September 1996, we conducted another general survey of opinion. This time we discovered a tremendous drop in Israeli Arab expe
