At sundown, Yom Kippur begins — the Day of Atonement — the holiest day in Judaism. On this day in 1973, Israel received a terrifying surprise attack from her Arab neighbors that nearly destroyed the Jewish State. Israelis vowed never to be caught off guard again. They have taken concrete and expensive steps to improve their security. A new poll just released in Israel suggests those steps are working. Israelis today feel more secure than ever before in their modern history, even as they are fully aware of new threats rising against them that some call a “gathering storm.”

The poll was commissioned by the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot. It was analyzed in a story in the New York Times.  Excerpts:

• On the one hand, “45 percent [of Israelis] said they feared for the survival ofIsraelas a Jewish state.”
• “Two-thirds of the respondents said there was no chance — ever — of achieving peace with the Palestinians.”
• “But asked if Israelwas a good place to live, 88 percent said yes.”
• “As Sima Kadmon, a political columnist at the newspaper [Yediot Aharanot], wrote, ‘In other words, nearly half of the Jewish public lives with a feeling of existential threat, doesn’t believe there will ever be peace, and despite that, is feeling good.’”
• Still, not everyone in Israel feels secure. The Haaretz newspaper published an editorial with the headline “This new year, the clouds are gathering.”