Israel Matzav

Americans believe Obama should support Israel, but does he?

An interesting new poll indicates that most Americans believe that President Obama ought to be supporting Israel, but only about half believe that he is doing so.

An overwhelming majority of voters believe the president should be a strong supporter of Israel, but are evenly split over whether President Barack Obama fits that bill, according to a new poll.

Nearly two thirds — 63 percent — told Quinnipiac University pollsters that the president should be a strong supporter of Israel. But those surveyed were divided on how Obama has dealt with Israel, with 39 percent saying he is a strong supporter of the country and 40 percent disagreeing.

Just 20 percent of those polled said the president should not be a strong supporter of Israel.

Voters also disapprove, 48 percent to 34 percent, of the way Obama is handling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the poll showed. Voters’ sympathies lie more with the Israelis than the Palestinians, 51 to 15 percent, although 44 percent say they support the establishment of a Palestinian state. A little over one-third, or 35 percent, told pollsters they oppose a Palestinian state.

Most say both Israelis and Palestinians are to blame for the failure to achieve a peace settlement in the Middle East, with 64 saying the responsibility falls on the two equally. Just six percent say they blame Israelis more, while 22 percent said it is the Palestinians who are most at fault.

“Americans remain in Israel’s corner in the dispute with the Palestinians, but they think both sides have contributed to the problem,” Quinnipiac University Polling Institute assistant director Peter Brown said in a press release.

In September, a Gallup poll found that Obama’s support among Jews had slipped, with four out of 10 Jewish Americans telling pollsters they disapproved of Obama.

It sounds like Americans are not only smarter than the spin doctors; they are also smarter than most Israelis. A poll taken here just after Obama's UN speech showed that 54% of Israelis now believe that Obama is pro-Israel. Hogwash. There's an election campaign.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Obama's obsession with Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:49 AM