[NYTr] Poll: 72% of Israelis Support Using Nuclear Weapons

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

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Ha'aretz - Oct 1, 2007
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/908725.html

 Poll: 72% of Israelis back use of nuclear arms in certain circumstances
By Haaretz Service

Some 72 percent of Israelis support the use of nuclear weapons in certain
circumstances, according to the results of a Canadian survey released
Monday, Army Radio reported.

The number of Israeli respondents in favor of destroying the world's nuclear
arms was lower than any of the six countries questioned in the Canadian
Institute of Strategic Studies poll, the radio said.

Pollsters said the Israeli response demonstrated that the public is
primarily concerned with national defense mechanisms in the face of a threat
from a nuclear Iran.

About half of the Israeli respondents who back using nuclear weapons said
they saw it as a possible way of preventing war; the other half said they
supported using nuclear arms during a war.

The poll also showed that 75 percent of Israelis would feel safer if they
knew with certainty that Israel has atomic weapons. Israel has maintained an
official veil of secrecy on rumors that it has in its possession nuclear
weapons.