Poll: 63% of Israelis think Trump ‘will be better for Israel’
Ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential elections, a little more than 63% of Israelis think that U.S. President Donald Trump “will be better for Israel,” according to an i24 News poll released on Monday.
President Donald Trump visits Jerusalem’s Western Wall on May 22, 2017. Credit: Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv
It reported that 63.3% of respondents chose the Republican incumbent, 18.8% chose former Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, 10.4% said “both are equally good for Israel,” 4.4% responded they don’t know, and 3.1% said neither candidate.
Some 53.2% said the Israeli right “will be harmed” if Trump loses; 21.2% replied that “Israel acts independently” and therefore wouldn’t be impacted if Trump is no longer president; 21.2% responded that their views are left-of-centre, and 4.4% said they don’t know.
As to whether they believe the U.S.-Israel relationship will be harmed if Biden wins, the results were almost 50-50, with 43.5% replying that relations won’t be impacted.
Meanwhile, 48.2% of Israelis responded that American Jews are “mistaken” in supporting the Democratic Party, while 35.5% replied they were “correct” in doing so, and 16.3% said they don’t know.
In answering how interested they are in or closely following events ahead of the election, some 48.1% of Israelis replied that they were “extremely interested,” 39.7% said they were “somewhat interested,” 9% responded “not very interested,” and 2.8% said “not interested at all.”
Regarding whether a divide has increased between American Jewry and the State of Israel in recent years, 47% responded that it could be mended; 35.3% replied that there’s “no rift, only debate”; 12.4% said the divide could not be fixed, and 5.3% said they don’t know.
JNS
