Some 91% of Israelis believe the Biden administration will be supportive of Israel, the Ruderman Family Foundation said in a new poll it shared with lawmakers in the Knesset on Monday.
"The survey was based on responses by 1,000 Israeli adults and was conducted under the supervision of Tel Aviv University's Prof. Camille Fuchs," the foundation said. "Further, 71% reported being satisfied with the US election results, including a combined 32% to a 'very large' or 'large' extent and 15% to a "low" extent; 20% were "not satisfied at all."
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Among the speakers at the caucus event was former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. He said that despite President-elect Joe Biden's close affinity to Israel, the relationship between Israel and the United States will be fraught compared to President Donald Trump's administration.
"With President Biden coming in, I think you can expect the high-water mark of the Trump years to start to recede," Fleischer warned. "Even if President Biden on some of the major issues does have a history of being a friend of Israel, I don't think it is going to translate throughout the [other echelons of the US] government. We saw that in the Obama years," he said.
Also speaking on Monday's panel was the Foundation's Executive Director Shira Ruderman and Jodi Rudoren, editor in chief of The Forward and former Jerusalem bureau chief at The New York Times.
Rudoren suggested that Trump's pro-Israel policy could harm Israel's strategic interests in the long run.
"A lot of analysts around the Israeli-Palestinain conflict talk about that, throughout history, progress has not come from places of comfort, but from places of discomfort and fear, and that there are many ways in which President Trump's particularly close friendship to Israel removed any pressure or tension," Rudoren said. "The core challenge to Israel's ongoing survival as a Jewish and democratic state has not moved forward in the Trump era and many people believe has moved backwards," she said.
About half (49% ) of Israelis believe the tenure of President-elect Biden will keep Israel's relations with American Jewry "the same," the poll showed. Some 18% of respondents said Biden's election will strengthen Israeli relations with American Jews and 23% said the onset of the new US administration will weaken that relationship.
"Some 73% expressed some degree of concern with the 'continued distancing between Israel and American Jews' given the discrepancy between the Israeli government and popular support for President Trump and American Jewish support for Biden," the foundation said in a statement.
"Our survey results reflect that the Israeli people still overwhelmingly believe in the enduring power of the US-Israel relationship regardless of the occupant in the White House," said Jay Ruderman, President of the Ruderman Family Foundation. "The divisiveness of the US election is also evident inside of the Jewish community, both in Israel and the United States. It will continue to be a top communal priority to bridge these divisions for the next four years and beyond."
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