A new study put out by the University of Haifa, which assessed the level of fear among Israeli Jews and Arabs during the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead, found an interesting result: Arabs generally feared more from the rocket attacks of fellow Arabs, than Jews did.

The research, conducted by Dr. Penina Ron of the School of Social Work at the University of Haifa, sought to compare levels of fear of death during war between Jews and Arabs, as well as between three different age groups: 65 and above, their children aged 42-64, and their grandchildren aged 20-40.

The results of the study found that, on average, the fear of death among the Arabs of Israel was greater than that of the Jews.

According to Dr. Ron, the Arab population has less experience actively dealing with war situations in which life is on the line, thus raising their level of fear in comparison to the Jews.

However, a comparison between the younger generation of both sectors revealed that the younger generation of Arabs feared less than its Jewish counterpart.

Dr. Ron explained this finding by the fact that Arab youth, unlike Jewish youth, are not required to fight in the army, which leads to a sense of complacency.

“[The fact that they don’t need to face the fears that soldiers face in battle] caused the Arab youth to feel more complacent, […] and to develop an attitude of ‘it won’t happen to me,'” she noted.