47% of Israelis Back Military Strike on Iran
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Forty-seven percent of respondents in a survey conducted by Maariv, an Israeli daily, supported a military strike to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear arms.
Seventy-one percent of Israelis say they believe accord brings Iran closer to bomb, and 51 percent support bypassing Obama in effort to nix it.
The poll was published Friday after Tuesday’s nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers, which agreed on the details of an unsigned accord that would offer Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for a scaling back of the Iranian nuclear program.
The paper did not give a sample size or margin of error for the poll carried out by Panels Politics Polling Institute. It did not provide information on respondents’ age, gender or religion.
Nearly three-quarters of respondents in the poll said they thought the agreement would accelerate Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon, not prevent it as claimed by the powers.
Asked “Do you support independent military action by Israel against Iran if such action is needed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon?” 47 percent said yes, 35 percent said no and 18 percent expressed no opinion.
A majority of respondents believed Jerusalem should use whatever means necessary to convince Congress to reject the deal, while only 38 percent said it was now time to engage with President Barack Obama on the execution of the deal in order to achieve conditions preferable to Israel. Eleven percent said they did not know what the best course of action was.
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