Study: Only 45% of Israelis Believe Iran’s Nuclear Program Can Be Stopped

Less than half of the Israeli public believes that Israel will be able to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, a study released by the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University has found.

Overall, the study found that the majority of Israelis are far more concerned about social challenges and internal rifts than any external threat.

The data shows that 66% of Israelis are more concerned about internal social threats than external ones and only 27% said the opposite.

Some 43% of respondents stated that they are most concerned about the tension between Arabs and Jews in Israel.

Asked to rank the most pressing external threats to Israel, Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ranked top by a small margin: 23% of respondents named a nuclear Iran as the most serious threat to Israel, and 21% named the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

An additional 10% said Hamas was the biggest threat to Israel, 15% mentioned terrorism, and only 13% named the northern sector, where Israel borders war-torn Syria and Lebanon – home to Iranian-backed Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah – as the most serious threat Israel faces.

The study further shows that 85% of the public believe that “Israel can rely solely on itself” vis-à-vis the external threats it faces, but only 45% believe Israel has the operational capability to stop the Iranian nuclear program.

Some 34% believe that Israel cannot do so on its own, and 21% were undecided.

With respect to the northern sector, 40% of Israelis support striking Hezbollah’s precision missile production infrastructure even at the cost of war.

Only 23% prefer bolstering Israel’s missile defenses at the expense of a military offensive, and 16% support reaching an agreement on the issue through international mediation.