Poll: Majority of Israelis Support Strike on Iran Without US Go-Ahead

A majority of Israelis would support an attack on Iran to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon even without prior approval from the United States, according to an Israel Democracy Institute poll published on Wednesday.

Overall, 51% of Israelis agreed that Israel could attack Iran even without receiving a “green light” from Washington; less than a third (31%) would not support such action without it, the poll finds.

An analysis of the data showed that support was higher among Jewish Israelis, reaching to 58%. The lower figure included opinion in the Arab Israeli population, where only 18% said they would support an Israeli strike without the U.S. backing.

According to the survey, 54% of respondents said that Iran poses an existential threat to Israel’s existence. About a quarter of respondents view Iran as a “medium danger” while 13% see it as posing only a “small danger.”

Here, too, there was a Jewish-Arab differential: whereas a large majority (62%) of Jewish Israelis consider Iran an existential danger, only a minority (19%) of Arab Israelis think so.

Pollsters gave a political breakdown as well: 67% on the political right supporting a strike without U.S. consent versus only 37.5% of the left.

Among those identified as being in the center, 50% of this growing section would support such an attack.