68% of Israeli Jews want Jewish prayer on Temple Mount – poll
Nearly three-quarters (72%) of Jewish Israelis think Israel should maintain its sovereignty over the Temple Mount in whatever diplomatic agreements it signs, a poll conducted for the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies and released this week found.
In addition, 68% think it is important for Jews to be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, as opposed to the status quo, in which they may only visit and only Muslims can pray, while 32% said it was not important.
More than half (58%) of Jewish Israelis support the initiative by Intelligence Minister Israel Katz to turn Jerusalem and adjacent settlements in the Gush Etzion and Binyamin regions into a Greater Jerusalem under one municipality. Nearly a quarter (23%) disagreed.
An even greater number of respondents, 64%, said they believe Israel must control the entire Jerusalem “envelope” for security and ideological reasons, while 17% disagreed. In addition, 63% said that dividing the city and giving part of it to Arab control would be a “strategic irresponsibility” that would “endanger the future of the Jewish state,” while 23% disagreed.
The poll was conducted by Maagar Mochot throughout October among 508 respondents in a representative sample of the adult Jewish population of Israel. It has a reported +/- 4.4% margin of error.
The Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies is a newly launched right-wing think tank.
According to JISS President Prof. Efraim Inbar, “Until now, the Israeli center-right and conservative sectors have not created a serious intellectual infrastructure that might reinforce and lead the mainstream in security thinking.
“The institute will reinforce the instincts of the Israeli public, which according to our new public opinion survey, holds healthy conservative leanings,” Inbar added.