between the two groups. For instance, while 66% of U.S. Jews identify security threats, terror, and violence as the most important long-term threat facing Israel, just 38% of Israeli Jews hold that same opinion. And while 39% of Israeli Jews identify economic problems as the most important long-term threat facing Israel, only 1% of U.S. Jews agree with that assessment.
When it comes to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jews in Israel are much less optimistic about the prospects for a two-state solution than Jews in the United States. Fewer than half of Israeli Jews (43%) polled in 2014 and 2015 said they believe “a way can be found for Israel and an independent Palestinian state to coexist peacefully with each other,” compared with a majority of American Jews (61%) polled on the same question in 2013. And while 42% of Israeli Jews believe that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are helpful to Israel's security, only 17% of American Jews share that opinion.
When it comes to the political prism through which they view the world, 49% of U.S. Jews consider themselves liberal, 29% consider themselves moderate, and 19% consider themselves conservative. Among Israeli Jews, just 8% consider themselves liberal, 55% consider themselves moderate, and 37% consider themselves conservative.
This broad variance in political perspective may be based upon the very different sociological networks that Jews in the United States and Israel find themselves in. In Israel, Jews make up 80% of the population, while in the United States, Jews represent just 2% of the population living in a country with a large Christian majority. This underlying reality explains why 98% of Israeli Jews claim that most of their close friends are Jewish, and 98% of Israeli Jews have Jewish spouses. In contrast, 32% of American Jews claim that most of their close friends are Jewish, and 56% of the Jews living in the United States have Jewish spouses.
The Pew report also offers a detailed examination of the many differences in religious identity and religious practice found between Jews living in America and Israel. Yet in spite of whatever differences may exist between the two groups,