Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump may have hit a nerve among Jewish voters in the United States when he suggested he would take a “neutral” approach on Israel, but not so much among Israelis.
According to the Israel Democracy Institute’s monthly Peace Index poll published on Sunday, 61 percent of Israeli Jews see Trump’s position on Israel as very or moderately friendly, 14% as not at all or not so friendly. The numbers are the same (58% vs. 13%) when matched among the general Israeli public, including Israeli Arabs.
The poll also showed that 34% of the Jewish-Israeli public think a Republican president will be better for Israel, compared to 28 percent who think so regarding a Democratic president. Thirteen percent believe that from the standpoint of Israel’s benefit, it makes no difference from which party a president will be elected.
Between the two Democratic presidential candidates, 40 percent sees Hillary Clinton as preferable from Israel’s standpoint. Only 16 percent preferred Bernie Sanders, who’s Jewish and stayed on an Israeli kibbutz in the 1960′s.
