56% of Israelis prefer Trump over Biden as next US president - poll
Surveyors were asked "from the standpoint of Israel’s interests, which, in your opinion, of the two candidates in the upcoming US presidential elections is preferable—Donald Trump or Joe Biden?"
By CELIA JEANFormer vice president Joe Biden (Left) and US President Donald Trump (Right)(photo credit: WHITE HOUSE / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
A survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute found that more than half (56%) of Israelis think US President Donald Trump is the better candidate than the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden to serve Israel’s future interests.Participants were asked: “From the standpoint of Israel’s interests, which, in your opinion, of the two candidates in the upcoming US presidential elections is preferable?”While 26% of interviewees said they did not have an opinion on the matter, more than half (56%) chose Trump, and the remaining 16% chose Biden.The results mirrored the divisions in Israeli politics, with the majority of those picking Trump coming from the right-wing and center parties, while the majority of the Left chose Biden.From the Right, 75% chose Trump as being the preferable candidate; 20% said they didn’t have an opinion on the matter; and only 5% percent opted for Biden. While the majority of the Left opted for Biden, the percentage paled in comparison to the Right’s support for Trump. Only 56% percent of left-leaning participants chose Biden, while 25% chose Trump and the remaining 19% percent responded that they didn’t know.In the center, 46% said that Trump was the better candidate; 20% chose Biden; and 34% chose the “don’t know” option.Though the survey asked what presidential candidate is best for Israel’s interests, it did not include questions pertaining to what these interests are and why each particular candidate is preferable.Rather than asking respondents why they feel a particular candidate is preferable, they were instead asked about their views on a hot topic in the US media spotlight: the Black Lives Matter protests.The poll asked participants if the protests are justified and what they thought about actions to take down historical statues and memorials.About two thirds (62%) of Jews answered that the protests are justified, while 23% said they are in opposition and the remainder (14%) responded that they didn’t have an opinion or didn’t know. Among the Arab population polled, 70% said the protests are justified while those who said they weren’t amounted to only 9%. Additionally, more Arabs than Jews answered that they didn’t know (21%).Respondents were then asked if “it is right to destroy memorials to historical events and to individuals whose opinions are nowadays considered discriminatory or racist; or, alternatively: It is not right to destroy memorials to historical events and to individuals, even if their opinions are nowadays discriminatory or racist.”The majority preferred the second claim, namely, that monuments should not be destroyed. Among the Arabs, however, a lower rate opposed the destruction of problematic monuments (45% vs. 59.5%).The poll was conducted between June 28 and 30. It polled 609 men and women over the age of 18 in Hebrew and 149 in Arabic, either over the phone or via the internet. The breakdown was intended as a representative national sample of the entire adult population of Israel aged 18 and older.
