By Cody Levine
(October 13, 2020/JPost) A new poll published by I24News and conducted by the Direct Falls Research Institute on Monday found that 63.3% of Israelis prefer the reelection of incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump, compared to 18.8% whom prefer former Vice President and Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Respondents indicated that a majority believe Trump will be a better president for the State of Israel, a minority of Israelis said the same about Biden. 10.4% of respondents said that both candidates would be equally good for the State of Israel, while 3.1% said neither.
Israelis were also asked about the connection of personal ties between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its potential impact on U.S.-Israel relations, with some 50.9% of respondents saying that the election of Biden will harm future relations between the two countries, since Trump has a special relationship with the State of Israel.
Similarly, 43.5% of respondents indicated that the U.S.-Israel relationship is not dependent on the U.S. president or Israeli prime minister, on the basis the U.S. is a 'true friend' of Israel.
In terms of public interest, 87.8% of Israelis said they were following the U.S. elections. Broken down, 48.1% said that the U.S. elections are very interesting for them, while another 39.7% said they are interesting to a certain extent. 9% said that they are not so interested in the U.S. elections.
Israeli perspectives on American Jewry's voting patterns were also assessed in the poll. According to the poll, 48.2% of respondents think that American Jews' support for Democrats is 'wrong,' compared to 35.5% of Israelis who think their support is 'right.' 16.3% of respondents said they were unsure.
On the question of ties between American and Israeli Jews, 47% of the latter said that there is a rift between the world's two largest Jewish communities, but expressed optimism about possible reconciliation. On the other hand, 35.3% of respondents said that a rupture does not exist between the two communities, but rather there are legitimate points of disagreement. Likewise, 12.4% of respondents said there cannot be any reconciliation between the two communities. 5.3% were unsure of the question.
The poll was conducted on October 6 with a sample of 519 adult respondents from all sectors of the Israeli population. The statistical sampling error was + 4.4%, with a probability of 95%.
