Channels

Home is where the heart is: Israelis happy where they live
Photo: Alon Dagetzky

The Israeli Dream

Poll finds most Israelis prefer to live in the Jewish state, with America a distant second

TEL AVIV - Most Israelis still maintain their love for their land but would prefer not to live in Jewish settlements, with about 30 percent interested in making peace with the Palestinians or giving them an independent state, a Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper survey found.

 

However, about 20 percent of poll respondents said they would choose to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by expelling the country’s Arab residents.

 

The telephone poll, which comprised 400 people and had a 4.9 percent margin of error, showed 18.9 percent of the respondents said they would like the government to try to negotiate a permanent peace deal with the Palestinians and 11.9 percent said Israel should allow them their own state.

 

However, about 20 percent said all Arabs should be expelled to other countries and 4.3 percent said they should be killed or put in ghettos. More than 10 percent of respondents said there was no ideal solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

 

Staying away from West Bank or Gaza

 

The respondents were also asked about their lifestyles and living preferences. About 57.7 percent said they would prefer to live in Israel than anywhere else, while 11.8 percent said they would like to move to the United States and 1.7 picked Switzerland as their ideal home.

 

More than half of those surveyed said they preferred to live in a city, with 27.6 percent preferring the Tel Aviv area and 10.7 percent marking Jerusalem as their preference. Over 27 percent said they would like to live on a farm or kibbutz. A little less than 1 percent said they would like to live in the West Bank or Gaza.

 

In terms of ideal professions, about 43 percent said they wanted to work in the high tech industry and 14 percent said they would prefer more artistic professions, such as in music or painting.

 

Most women said they were interested in pursing jobs in education, interior design, sewing or social work. Men preferred work in contracting, music, medicine, law and aviation. In Israel, pilots, especially those who served in the IDF air force, are widely respected.

 

About nine percent of the respondents said they were interested in studying foreign languages and a slightly smaller number said they wanted to go to medical school.

 

A preference for virgins

 

When it comes to love, Israelis are rather conservative. Survey respondents said they do not want a waif-thin supermodel wife or a tall basketball player for a husband, but both sexes agreed on one thing - their better half should not engage in sexual activity with too many partners before they marry.

 

Overall, 41.5 percent of men and a whopping 54 percent of women said they want to marry a virgin.

 

When it comes to children, assuming financial considerations are not a factor, the average Israeli would like to have 5 kids. Men want an equal number of boys and girls, while most women said they would prefer more girls

 


פרסום ראשון: 05.12.05, 12:58
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment