Strategic Assessment

This essay examines the positions of Israel’s Arab population toward the Islamic State, formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). It is partly based on a public opinion poll surveying 690 Muslim Arab citizens of Israel. The findings indicate that support for the Islamic State among Arab citizens of Israel and their rate of joining its ranks are still marginal, isolated phenomena. The Arab population, led by the political and religious leadership of all the major streams and parties, openly and explicitly condemns the organization. Islamic State supporters among Israel’s Arab citizens include those who maintain a Palestinian Arab identity and reject affiliation as Israelis; support is directly correlated with a strengthening of the nationalist component of Arab identity at the expense of the civic component. This is a result of discrimination, alienation, racism, and marginalization, and the social, economic, and political reality of the Arab population in Israel and relations with the Jewish sector. Therefore, in addition to law enforcement and prevention of hostile activity, Israel must take concrete steps to strengthen the civic component among the Arab minority: reduce discrimination and gaps between the Arab and Jewish sectors, integrate the Arab population in the national economy, and root out anti-Arab racism.