ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the distribution of opinion regarding defense and foreign policy issues in Israel based on social location variables. It assesses the similarity or difference among groups when considering the attitudes. The issue is an important one, for it is one of the axioms of modern social science that social location is related to one's attitudes. Positions on public issues are seen as a reflection of social formation. The chapter examines the relation between opinion-clusters regarding security and foreign policy matters, and among indicators of social location, religiosity and vote for political party. The overcome and sacrifice constructs are practically insensitive to changes in social location. The lack of correspondence between attitudes of the public and social group membership is a central feature of Israeli society. This diffusion indicates that there is only a low level of crystallization within social groups of political and defense world views, conceptions and ideologies.