RAMALLAH, March 27, 2011 (WAFA) – A report issued by the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies (MADAR) Sunday showed that the Israeli society is steadily becoming more religious and conservative which result to a stricter attitude towards Arabs and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The report said that whenever the degree of religiosity among the Jewish society rises, the level of opposition against equality between Arabs and Jews rises.
It indicated the increase of Israel’s international isolation, the rise in the international attempts to delegitimize Israel and the growing unspoken elimination of Israel by many countries.
The report, which observed the latest updates in negotiations; foreign affairs; the political, economic, military, socially and the Palestinian axes among the Israeli society in 2010, said that Israel’s population reached 7.695 million; 1.573 million of which are Arabs located in occupied Jerusalem and Golan Heights, according to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.
Netanyahu’s government policy is based on four axes which are the full count on military force, the domination of the domestic policy over the foreign policy, a constant shifting of the structure of the Israeli community from secular to religious, and the absence of a united vision of how to solve the conflict, according to the report.
The report also said that attempts to suppress the Palestinian identity and to impose a system of loyalty on Arabs by law continued throughout 2010, as the legislative process in Israel directly targeted Arabs living in Israel.
It pointed out that the Israeli government connected the entitlements of the Palestinian
file not only to national strategic accounts but also to tactical and factional accounts.
As for the joint articular events that took place at the end of 2010 and in the beginning of 2011, the report showed that the political stalemate and Israeli intransigence dominate the scene and that the most important event would result from the joint occurrence of two main factors; Arab revolutions, especially the Egyptian revolution that opened the door for Egypt to replay the key role in the region and the demise of Israeli-Turkey military alliance Where Turkey went more towards the Syria – Iran NATO.
Which practically means Israel’s loss of one of its most important friends in the region, and Israel’s response to the occurring shifts in the region by increasing reliance on military power and the strength of deterrence.
The report also mentioned the beginning of final status negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians in early September 2010, how they were stalled and then halted.
It showed that for the first time in the Israeli army’s history it was announced in 2010 that Iran is Israel’s first strategic enemy.
The report also noted that last year, the Israeli economy has been a great success.
R.Q./T.R./F.R.
