For Peace and Progress:

1
For Peace and Progress Assessing the
Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
Michael Bacharach Sociology mikebach_at_umd.edu
Objective To gauge students understanding of
international conflict, specifically the
Palestinian-Israeli crisis. Furthermore, this
study compared the relative knowledge of scholars
students in Public Leadership versus those in
Environmental Science. Finally, the opinions of
scholars students were compared with world
public opinion in order to identify general
trends.
Analysis Students had a mean score of 36.9 on 8
factual questions. Public Leadership scored
slightly better than Environmental Science
students 39 vs. 35 correct. Government Majors
did better than other majors with a mean score of
3.42 vs. 2.88. Only 8.8 of students could
correctly name the current leaders of both Israel
and Palestine. Respondents generally
overestimated the number of Jews and
underestimated the number of Muslims. The range
given was anywhere from 5,000 to 5 billion
people. Students also were confused as to the
percentage of Israel which is Jewish (76).
Nearly, ¼ said 90 or greater and another ¼ said
60 or less. Overall, respondents did not align
themselves with world opinion, and were
uninformed, which begs the question, why dont
students care more about this issue, or global
politics in general?
Research Context Since the inception of the
worlds only Jewish state more than 50 years ago,
Arabs and Israelis have suffered through 7 wars,
2 Intifadas, multiple assassinations, dozens of
failed peace negotiations, and the deaths of
thousands of young men and women. Following a
recent trip to Israel I was inspired to seek out
students thoughts and feelings concerning this
contentious topic, and found a survey to be the
most reliable conduit.
Modifications/Limitations After half of the
surveys were collected it became clear that an
abnormally low number of correct responses were
received for question number one. This question
was unprompted, and for the second half of the
students an addendum was included to more
precisely assess students understanding. In
addition, the survey audience may be considered
too homogeneous both in intellect and ethnic
background to be considered a true representation
of the general public, or even University of
Maryland students.

• 55.2 of people sampled said that Yasser Arafat
  (deceased) is the current leader of the
  Palestinian National Authority
• 51.2 of respondents believe that Arabs are
  denied the right of citizenship in the state of
  Israel. (incorrect)
• 72.8 of respondents agreed to shared blame in
  the failure to reach peace, but 16 blamed the
  Palestinians, and 8 blamed the Israelis
• Nearly 1/3 of respondents believe that loss of
  U.S. support is the greatest threat to Israel.
• 65.6 of respondents feel that a two state
  solution is the best alternative for peace
• 73.6 believe the United Nations has a
  responsibility to help solve the conflict.
• 28 of respondents believe the United States
  should be a mediator in this conflict

Research Method A 20-queston survey was
administered to 125 College Park Scholars
students aged 18-22. Students varied in age,
ethnicity, major and Scholars subset. The survey
was divided into four subtopics Current Affairs,
World Perceptions, Future Solutions, and Media
Influences. Surveys were distributed in person to
ensure the integrity of the study. Because half
of the questions are factual in nature, face to
face surveys mitigate the use of unauthorized
sources which would negate research findings. To
maintain confidentiality, respondents were given
numbers 1-125 and no names were recorded during
the analysis stage. Responses to all 20 questions
were recorded, charted and graphed in order to
share survey results.