Poll: Israelis think Clinton tougher on Israel, but prefer her to Trump
Sixty-three percent of Israeli Arab respondents to Peace Index poll said the country's situation was either "very" or "moderately" good.
By ARIEL WHITMANUpdated: OCTOBER 16, 2016 21:59Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton look on at the start of their debate.(photo credit: REUTERS)
A large plurality of Israelis (43%) believe Hillary Clinton is preferable to Donald Trump (26.5%) in the upcoming US presidential election, according to the latest Peace Index poll taken by the Israel Democracy institute.The results are a bit puzzling given the fact that in the same poll, a majority of Israelis said that a President Clinton (63%) would exert greater pressure on Israel than a President Trump (8%.)Israelis by and large are satisfied with life in Israel, the poll found. Fifty-four percent of respondents said the country's overall status was either "moderately" or "very" good, while only 37% see the country's status as "average."Not surprisingly, Israelis who identified as "right", given the center right government, were more likely to be satisfied with the direction of the country than those who identified as "center" or "left." "Religious" Jews were more likely to be satisfied than "traditional" or "secular" Jews. Sixty-three percent of Arab respondents said the country's situation was either "very" or "moderately" good.A clear majority (64%) of Israeli Jews believe that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's decision to attend the late President Shimon Peres's funereal was not a sign of a Palestinian desire to return to negotiations with Israel, while a majority of Israeli Arabs (57%) believe it was.An overwhelming majority of Israelis believe that the decision by the heads of the Joint Arab List to decline participation in Peres’ funeral was politically "unwise" (81%) and "unjustified" (77.5%.)Among Israeli Arabs, the Joint Arab List's constituents, 49% say the abstention was an unwise political move and 42.5% thought the decision had no basic justification.A large majority of Israelis support conducting peace negotiations with the Palestinians, with 33.3% saying they "strongly" and 29.4% saying they "moderately" support negotiating with the Palestinian Authority, although only 29.2% believe with any degree of certitude that peace will be achieved in the coming years.