Obama and Netanyahu at Monday's meeting
Obama and Netanyahu at Monday's meetingEliran Aharon

A new poll has determined that just over half of Israel's citizens think the US cannot be trusted in the context of security, after Washington backed down from striking Syria's chemical sites.

52.6% of those polled said they do not trust the US, while 24.9% said that they do trust it. Another 22.5% said that they have no opinion.

The poll showed that the more religious the people polled, the more likely they were to believe that the US cannot be trusted. Among secular people, 45% said they do not trust Washington. Among traditional Jews, the percentage was up to 55.4%. Among religious people it was 67.6% and among hareidim it soared to 85.4%.

The poll was conducted by the Yifat Gat Institute for Bar Ilan University and the Academic College Kinneret, for the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War.

The poll also asked people if they think Iran might launch a surprise attack against Israel. While 56.4% said that this is possible, 43.6% do not believe this could occur. Of those who believe in the possibility, 61% are women, and the more religious the people polled, the more likely they are to take the Iranian threat of a surprise attack seriously.

49.5% of the responders said they trust the government to make the right decisions if Israel finds itself in a situation like the Yom Kippur War again, while 35.6% do not, and 15% did not have an opinion. The more religious the responder was, the more likely he or she was to trust the government to do the right thing.