A Thursday Statnet/Walla survey conducted under the supervision of Tel Aviv University’s Prof. Camil Fuchs shows that Israelis prefer Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton by a large margin to win the White House, but say they trust Republican candidate Donald Trump to take care of Israel’s interests.
The survey included 601 respondents, of whom 499 were Jews, 102 Arabs. The overall results show that 38% preferred Clinton, compared with 23% for Trump. The rest of the candidates were far behind. Bernie Sanders received 7%, Ted Cruz 5%, and Marco Rubio 4%.
A full 23% of respondents said they had no idea whom to support.
When analyzed according to different sectors, 26% of Jews like Trump, compared with 7% of Arabs. And while 44% of the Arabs prefer Hillary, only 37% of the Jews do. 61% of voters for center-left parties prefer Clinton, but only 25% of voters for rightwing and religious parties do. Then 33% of rightwing voters liked Trump, and only 18% of the center-left bunch did.
When asked, “Regardless of your preference, which candidate will serve Israel’s interests better as president?” Trump was preferred by 25% of respondents, compared with 24% who picked Hillary. When only Jews were asked the same question, Trump received 28%, compared with only 22% for Clinton.
Among the Arabs, 33% thought Clinton would be the best president in terms of Israeli interests, while only 13% chose Trump. About a third had no idea. Cruz, Sanders and Rubio received 6% each.