News Brief19:51 PM

(IsraelNN.com) According to a poll conducted by Keevoon Research and Strategy for Yediot Acharonot, most Israelis are optimistic about the upcoming year.  74 percent of Israelis believe that the next year will be better for them personally than the last, while 56 percent believe this year will be better than the last for the country as a whole.  20 percent believe that the national situation will get worse, while only seven percent believe that their personal situation will be worse.

The poll found that women were more optimistic than men, and students and soldiers were the most personally optimistic.  Supporters of NU/NRP were the most nationally optimistic, while those who voted for the left-wing Meretz were the least optimistic.  Those who identified themselves as national-religious were the most optimistic on both a personal and national level, with hareidi-religious respondents taking second place.