Israel Matzav

'Success': Another 1% of Israelis think Obama is pro-Israel

President Obama turned on the charm with Prime Minister Netanyahu last week. Obama let Netanyahu enter through the front door of the White House. He let photographers in, and even held a 'media availability' session. He didn't abandon Netanyahu to eat dinner with his family. Then he walked Netanyahu back to his limousine and told him to take care. And then he even gave an interview to Channel 2's Yonit Levy.

Israelis were impressed. Real impressed. The percentage of Israelis who think Obama is pro-Israel has now risen from 9% to 10%.

When asked whether they saw Obama’s administration as more pro-Israel, more pro- Palestinian or neutral, just 10 percent of Israeli Jews said more pro-Israel, 46% said more pro-Palestinian, 34% said neutral and 10% did not express an opinion.

The poll of 515 Jewish Israelis, representing a statistical sample of the adult Jewish population, was taken on Monday through Wednesday and had a 4.4 percentage point margin of error.

The question asked was exactly the same as in four previous polls sponsored by this newspaper since May 2009. The first poll, which was taken before the first Netanyahu-Obama meeting in the White House and Obama’s landmark speech in Cairo in June 2009, found that 31% considered this presidency more pro- Israel and 14% more pro-Palestinian.

The next poll, taken just one month later, found a huge shift, with the proportion calling the Obama administration more pro-Palestinian rising from 14% to 50% and the proportion calling it more pro-Israel falling from 31% to only 6%.

Those calling the Obama presidency more pro-Israel than pro-Palestinian fell in August 2009 to a nadir of 4% and rose to 9% in March 2010.

Since then, the latest poll shows, the share who consider this White House more pro-Palestinian fell by 2 percentage points, from 48% to 46%, and those saying it is neutral rose from 30% to 34%.

Respondents who consider themselves right-wing or haredi were more likely to call the Obama administration more pro-Palestinian.

I guess Israeli Jews aren't so stupid after all. And no, his unpopularity here has nothing to do with his middle name.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:16 AM