Survey Shows Israeli Christians Not As Supportive of Israel as U.S. Christians

Mar 10, 2016 02:08 PM EST

Surveys out by the Pew Research Center revealed that more Christians in the U.S. believe that their country is providing the right amount of support to Israel. Many Christians in Israel, however, don't hold the same view.

According to CBN, the study was carried out by the organization to measure the public's perception on the current state of Israel, which is known as a predominantly Jewish land.

For the survey, the Pew Research Center asked a total of 468 Christians who identified themselves as Christians. Based on the results, over 80 percent of the participants believe that the U.S. is giving Israel too much support. On the other hand, about six percent said that the level of support is not enough, while the remaining respondents noted that it's just right.

These findings contradict the results of another survey facilitated by the Pew Research Center in 2013. In that study, about 41 percent of the American Christian respondents believe that the country was giving Israel the right amount of support. But, for 29 percent of the study's population, they said that the country should do more for Israel.

These are almost the same results for another study carried out by the organization in 2015.

The trend, however, regarding the conflicting view of the two Christian groups from different countries remain unclear since Pew Research Center did not offer any explanation regarding the variations in the study.

Interestingly, though, in another study conducted on about 5,600 Jewish Israelis, almost half of them, or about 48 percent, said that the Arab Israelis should be deported or removed from the country. But, majority of secular Jews don't hold the same sentiment, YNetNews.com reported.

As for Arab Israeli respondents, more than half of them noted that discrimination against Muslims exists in the country.

After seeing the results of the 2016 study, President Reuven Rivlin of Israel said that the country's lawmakers should learn from the findings of the survey.

"This survey must be placed before the decision makers in Israel, before the government of Israel," he said in a statement according to YNetNews.com.

"Looking at us as a society, it is clear we believe Israel is - in one breath - a democratic and Jewish state," he added. "The idea that the state of Israel could be democracy only for its Jewish citizens is unconscionable and we must find a way to address this."