The majority of Israelis like US President Joe Biden but believe that his predecessor, Donald Trump did a better job in looking out for Israel's interests, a poll published Monday by the Pew Research Center concluded.
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The survey showed that 60% of Israelis support Biden, who is set to visit the Jewish state from July 13-16, compared to 71% of respondents, who favored Trump's leadership in 2019.
"Today, 60% of Israelis say they have a great deal or some confidence in Biden to do the right thing regarding world affairs, down 11 percentage points from assessments of Trump in 2019. The share of Israelis who express a lot of confidence in Biden is also about half the share who said the same of Trump (16% vs. 30%, respectively)," the poll, conducted from mid-March to early May, found.
Despite major support for Trump's policies, including recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocating the US Embassy there, 42% of Israelis described him as "dangerous," compared to 21% that referred to Biden in that manner. In addition, 52% believe the former American president to be "intolerant."
With 55% of the respondents saying that Biden is "well-qualified," the Israelis are divided about Biden's policies in the region, specifically regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"Around a third think Biden favors the Israelis too much (31%), roughly a quarter say he favors the Palestinians too much (26%) and 34% think he's striking about the right balance," the survey said.
The divide is more evident between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. While 65% of Jewish respondents expressed confidence in Biden, only 34% of Arabs supported this position. Jewish Israelis are also more than twice as likely as Arab Israelis to report favorable views of the US – 93% compared to 38%.
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The poll discovered that the majority of Israelis (89%) and Americans (74%) think that bilateral relations between the countries are in good shape. However, the survey showed that only 48% of American adults feel positive about Israel's government.
Nevertheless, the majority of 67% still expressed positive views of the Israeli people, while 55% shared similar feelings toward the State of Israel.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
