As election season heats up in the United States, Israeli Jews and Arabs differ in their views of which American political party would be better for Israel, according to a poll released on Sunday by the Israel Democracy Institute.
A plurality of Israeli Jews believed Israel would be better off with a Republican winning the White House in November, while Israeli Arabs felt a president from the Democratic Party would be better.
Amongst Jews, 33.6% believed a Republican president was preferable, compared to 27.9% who favored a Democrat, and 38.5% who believed there would be no difference or didn’t have an opinion in the matter.
In the Arab sector the preference was switched, with 37.1% responding that a Democrat would be more pro-Israel, compared to 23.2% for a GOP president, and 39.6% who believed party affiliation would not matter or had no opinion.
Israeli Jews also tended to be very favorable towards current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, with 60.9% believing the New York billionaire was friendly towards Israel, compared to 13.9% who felt he was not.
Arabs, on the other hand, were less enthusiastic, with only 44.9% responding that Trump was friendly towards Israel.
Interestingly, the election’s lone Jewish candidate, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, failed to win much support among Israelis. Only 16.5% of Jews believed Sanders was better for Israel than his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, while 40.5% felt the former Secretary of State was preferable to Sanders. The Vermont Senator is America’s first Jewish contender for the presidency to win primaries in one of the two major parties.