Israeli public not worried about direct conflict between Israel, Iran: survey

JERUSALEM, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli public is not worried about the direct conflict between Israel and Iran which may erupt in the near future, said a survey released on Wednesday.

The majority believe that Israel will be victorious and the Israeli public will cope with the consequences, said the survey, by the Monthly Peace Index of the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University.

The survey said that 47 percent of Israelis believe that there is a low likelihood of a direct military confrontation between Israel and Iran in the foreseeable future, compared with 40 percent who consider the likelihood to be high.

Should such a conflict break out, around two-thirds, 64 percent, believe that there is a high likelihood that Israel would achieve victory; 71 percent of Jews hold this opinion, compared with just 27 percent of Arabs.

Similarly, 54 percent believe that the Israeli public (61.5 percent of the Jews and 18 percent of the Arab) is sufficiently strong to withstand the consequences, and 35.5 percent think that the Israeli public is not strong enough.

About 63 percent of Israelis think it is for Israel's best interest to transfer the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem with the declarations of intent by other countries to move their embassies to the city, despite the fact that the Palestinians consider the relocation of embassies is extremely harmful.

Among Jews, 68 percent believe this is a positive step in terms of Israel's interests, compared with just 37 percent among Arabs think so.

The survey was conducted by Ephraim Yaar of Tel Aviv University and Tamar Hermann of the Israel Democracy Institute between April 24 and 25 through interviews with 600 respondents. Enditem