(JNS) A recent poll of the Israeli public found that 51 percent of respondents would support an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites without an American green light. The poll, conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute and published on Wednesday, also found that 18 percent of the sample did not know how to answer the question, and 31 percent said they thought an American green light would be necessary before a strike.

Only 18 percent of Israeli Arabs agreed that Israel should attack without American consent. In addition, while a majority on the political right agreed with the idea of an Israeli strike without U.S. consent, and half of the respondents in the center agreed with the statement, only a little more than a third on the left taking that position. “A certain majority of the public as a whole sees Iran as constituting a great existential danger to Israel,” the institute stated. “This majority is similar to the rate of those who thought so when we asked a similar question about half a year ago. The rate of Jews who see Iran as an existential danger is significantly higher than the rate among Arab citizens of Israel.”