The Majority of the Israeli Public Believes Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem is in Israel's Best Interests
The Monthly Peace Index of the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University published today, found that most Israeli Jews believe that transferring the US Embassy to Jerusalem, despite Palestinian protests, is in Israel’s best interests.
Regarding the Iranian threat, the Israeli public is not worried that a direct conflict between Israel and Iran is set to erupt in the near future, but should this be the case-- a majority also believes that Israel will be victorious, and that the Israeli public will cope with the consequences (please note that the Survey was conducted before the Israeli Intelligence exposed Iran's secret nuclear files).
Main findings:
Jerusalem: Against the backdrop of the transfer of the US Embassy to Jerusalem and the declarations of intent by other countries to move their embassies to the Israeli capital, 63% of Israelis think that this process is in Israel’s best interest, despite the fact that the Palestinians consider the relocation of embassies to be extremely harmful. Among Jews, there is a large majority (68%) that believes this is a positive step in terms of Israel’s interests, compared with a minority of just 37% among Arabs.
Iran: 47% of Israelis believe that there is a low likelihood of a direct military confrontation between Israel and Iran in the foreseeable future, compared with 40% who consider the likelihood to be high. Should such a conflict break out, around two-thirds (64%) believe that there is a high likelihood that Israel would emerge victorious; 71% of Jews hold this opinion, compared with just 27% of Arabs. Similarly, 54% believe that the Israeli public (61.5% of the Jews and 18% of the Arab) is sufficiently strong to withstand the consequences in terms of casualties and the damage likely to be inflicted in the course of a conflict with Iran (compared with 35.5% who think that the Israeli public is not strong enough).
Gaza: 83% of Jewish Israelis believe that the IDF’s open-fire policy during the clashes at the border with Gaza in recent weeks is justified, in contrast with only 6% of Arab Israelis. (overall, 71% of the public believes that the policy is correct). Furthermore, a majority of the Jews (67%) opposes increasing relief services to Gaza residents, such as making it easier to import and export goods while 84% of the Arab Israelis support it.
The full Peace Index is available at: http://peaceindex.org/indexMonthEng.aspx?num=331
The survey was conducted by Prof Ephraim Yaar of Tel Aviv University and Prof Tamar Hermann of the Israel Democracy Institute. Between April 24 and April 25, interviews were held with 600 respondents who constitute a nationally representative sample.