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