Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton in statistical dead heat as most pro-Israel candidate, poll of Israelis finds

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton finished in a statistical dead heat as the most pro-Israel U.S. presidential candidate, according to a poll of Israelis.

Some 33 percent of respondents picked Trump, the Republican Party’s front-runner, as the most pro-Israel among the candidates, and 31 percent chose Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, according to the findings released Wednesday by the Ruderman Family Foundation.

But the margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points, making for the statistical tie.

Ted Cruz, who trails Trump among the Republicans, garnered 6 percent, while Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders was the choice of 5 percent.

The poll of 500 Hebrew-speaking Israelis was conducted on March 27, at the start of a visit to the United States by Knesset members under the auspices of the Ruderman Foundation.

Other findings showed that Israelis believe their lawmakers should take American Jews into consideration when drafting laws and American Jews should stand alongside Israel on issues of foreign policy and security.

Asked whether they “agree or disagree with the notion that Israeli Knesset members should take American Jews into consideration while drafting laws that might affect them in Israel,” 53 percent of the respondents said they agreed and 32 percent said they disagreed, with 15 percent saying they had no opinion.

Some 86 percent of respondents also said they believe Knesset members should have “close ties” with American Jews. Forty percent said they believe that relations between Israel and the United States have deteriorated in the past two years, with 30 percent saying the ties are unchanged and another 10 percent believing they have improved.

Some 84 percent of the respondents said American Jews “must actively stand alongside Israel on issues” such as foreign policy and security, while 9 percent disagreed.