Pew Poll Finds That Israelis and American Jews Share Strong Bonds - Alexander Apfel BIN

Pew Poll Finds That Israelis and American Jews Share Strong Bonds

By Alexander Apfel March 11, 2016  BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity; better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.” Proverbs 27:10 (The Israel Bible™)

A new Pew poll shows that Israelis and American Jews share strong bonds and that most Israeli Jews feel they share a common destiny with US Jews.

The Pew Research Center released a series of polls and findings relating to Israeli society on Tuesday, March 8. The research covered a variety of subjects, including religion, politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

One of the surveys conducted shows that 68% of Israelis say that they have “a lot” or “some” in common with American Jews while 59% said that they think US Jews have a good influence on Israeli affairs. Only 6% said that they believed the influence was negative while the remainder expressed ambivalence.

The poll indicates relative reciprocity by Israelis in comparison with a 2013 survey of US Jews and it even reflects that Israelis have more positive feelings towards American Jews than vice-versa. While the 2013 poll indicated that American Jews also harbor warm feelings toward the State of Israel, only 30% of American Jews polled said that they were “very” emotionally attached to Israel and just 39% said that they were “somewhat” so.

Despite the greater percentages of support by Israelis, American support has proven robust and has not wavered since 2000-2001 despite the increase in the delegitimization campaigns against Israel in recent years.

“Emotional attachment to Israel has not waned discernibly among American Jews in the past decade,” the 2013 Pew survey concluded.