Poll: More Israeli Jews not worried by security threats

TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Israeli Jews aren't worried the security situation will worsen despite threats by Syria to launch an attack in retaliation to U.S. military action, a poll said.

Just 16.4 percent of Israeli Jews believe their security situation will worsen in the new year marked by Rosh Hashana Wednesday, the Peace Index, an Israel Democracy Institute/Tel Aviv University poll released Tuesday.

The poll showed 46.1 percent of Israeli Jews believe the security situation will remain the same and 28.3 percent think it will get better.

Of Israeli Arabs, 29.8 percent believe security will improve, 26.9 percent believe it will worsen and 28.6 percent believe it will stay the same.

The poll also found that Israeli Arabs were more likely to believe that Israeli's foreign relations would get worse over the coming year. Twenty-one percent said relations would improve, 35.1 percent said they would get worse and 28.8 percent said they would stay the same.

Among Jews, 16.6 percent said relations would worsen, 24.1 percent said they would get better and 49.8 percent believe they would remain the same.

The poll was taken by 505 respondents from Thursday to Monday. It had a 4.3 percent margin of error.