The public is almost equally divided on the country’s possible involvement in a potential US military strike on Iran, a poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found.
Fifty percent favor participation only if Israel is attacked by Tehran, while 44% support direct IDF involvement coordinated with the US from the outset.
The Tuesday survey divided the results by category within society, noting that among Jewish Israelis sampled, support for direct involvement is slightly higher than support for retaliatory strikes, at 48% vs 46%, respectively. In contrast, a majority of Arab Israeli respondents, 67%, favor only retaliatory strikes.
Among centrist and left-wing Jewish Israelis sampled, the majority favors involvement only if Iran attacks Israel first, whereas a majority on the Right supports the country joining preemptive American attacks on the Islamic Republic.
Should Israel reduce its reliance on US military aid?
The IDI also polled participants’ views on whether Israel would benefit from reducing US military aid to zero, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently announced would become policy.
Forty-nine percent believe that this would be harmful to Israel’s security, while 39.5% believe it would not harm Israel.
A larger portion of both Jews and Arabs believe it would be harmful, with 48% of Jews and 52% of Arabs sharing this view, as opposed to 42% of Jews and 27.5% of Arabs believing national security would not be harmed.
Across the political spectrum, the general perception is that it would be harmful to Israel’s security, with a majority of those identifying on the Left to the Center-Right sharing this view. Less than one-third of those on the Right, however, believe it would be harmful.
Should Netanyahu join Trump's Gaza Board of Peace?
Some 51% of respondents believe it would be correct for Netanyahu to join US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, recently launched at the Davos World Economic Forum; 30% believe it would be the incorrect decision.
The IDI noted that an “unusually large share” of respondents were unsure, with 19% choosing this option. This was mainly due to 31% of Arab respondents feeling this way, the IDI’s release explained.
The poll also questioned whether the BoP can help solve problems in Gaza while maintaining Israel’s security.
Among Jews, 54% believe it would be helpful, while 42% of Arabs share this view – the largest single share but not a majority.
A large proportion of Arab respondents, 24%, selected that they did not know.
Who bears responsibility for the illegal daycare tragedy in Jerusalem?
The IDI also polled respondents on who they believe bore responsibility for the tragedy at an illegal daycare in Jerusalem that led to the death of two infants and the hospitalization of approximately 50 others last month.
Some 39% believe that the operators of unsupervised private daycares are responsible for such tragedies.
This is followed by 22% who believe government ministries are responsible, and 20% who place the blame on municipalities; 12% consider parents of the children to be responsible for such incidents.
The divide in perceived responsibility was highlighted by the IDI when exploring responses based on religious affiliation. Over 40% of those from a secular, traditional, or national-religious background tied responsibility to the daycare operators, followed by government ministries and municipalities, respectively, as seen in the wider poll results.
However, among the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) population, 45% of those polled view government ministries as responsible, while 18% blame the daycare operators. A large percentage also stated that they “don’t know.”
Notably, the daycare in the recent tragedy was haredi and located in a haredi area of northern Jerusalem.
The survey was conducted by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute between January 25 and 29. It was based on a representative sample of the population in Israel aged 18 and above, comprising 604 Jewish interviewees and 151 Arab interviewees. The maximum sampling error was ±3.57% at a confidence level of 95%. Fieldwork was carried out by Shiluv I2R.