Younger Australians consider Israel as international troublemaker

Younger Australians have a significantly less favorable opinion of Israel's role in world affairs than their older counterparts, a study has found.

The Roy Morgan International Research survey commissioned by AsiaLink -- a non-academic centre linked to the University of Melbourne -- included a wide range of questions on how Australians and Asians saw other countries and whether they viewed them as international troublemakers.

The survey found that about 16 per cent of Australian respondents under 35 years viewed Israel as "a country of concern", while only about eight per cent of respondents aged 35 and older held that view.

Similarly, around 30 per cent of under-35s identified the United States as a global threat, while a considerably smaller proportion -- less than 20 per cent -- of those aged 35 and above, shared that opinion.

The survey also asked Australian respondents to select one or more groups of people who, they believed, were responsible for world terrorism.

Seventeen per cent chose "Jews" and 28 per cent ticked "the Israelis".

Meanwhile, 32 per cent selected "the Arabs".

Asked which conflicts they saw as "the most serious problem facing the world in the next 10 years", seven per cent of Australians chose "Jews versus Moslems", 12 per cent selected "Palestine versus Israel" and 24 per cent ticked "Christianity versus Islam".