Symbol of the Jewish State
Symbol of the Jewish StateIsrael News Photo: (file)

A new poll shows that the benefits of living in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Israel far outweigh the threat of Palestinian Authority terrorism, economic hardship and political uncertainty for the vast majority of Israelis.

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The results were published Sunday in the 2008 Survey of Patriotism conducted among Israeli Jews by the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya (IDC).

 

According to the survey, 92 percent of the respondents answered affirmatively to the question as to whether they would actively engage in a military battle for Israel. The same number expressed pride in their Jewishness.

 

Ninety percent characterized themselves as "patriotic," and 85 percent said they were opposed to dividing Jerusalem in order to gain peace with the Palestinian Authority.

Eighty-three percent of those who answered the survey supported raising the Israeli flag on Independence Day – and a higher number, 90 percent, expressed outrage when people act "contemptuously" during the sounding of the siren on Memorial Day.

 

An overwhelming majority of Israel's Jews also prefer to live in the Jewish State than anywhere else: 87 percent said they would rather be Israeli citizens than citizens of any other country.

 

Even the threat of a nuclear attack by Iran did not dissuade Israeli Jews from living in the Jewish State; 86 percent said they would rather live in Israel, even in the event that Iran succeeds in attaining a nuclear weapon of mass destruction. Israeli and U.S. officials fear precisely such a scenario: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly vowed to wipe the State of Israel "off the map."