Israel Matzav

Surprise: Most Israelis think Romney would be warmer to them than Obama

Well, here's a real shock (not!). A new survey finds that most Israelis believe that Mitt Romney would be better for Israel than Barack Hussein Obama.

The survey – commissioned by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, the Bar-Ilan University Center for International Communication and the Anti-Defamation League – found that while 51 percent of Israeli Jews believe Obama is “friendly” or “very friendly” toward Israel, more people think the expected Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, would better promote Israel’s interests.

I'm amazed it's anywhere close to 51%.

Asked how they would describe Obama’s attitude toward Israel, 45% of the respondents characterized him as “friendly” and 6% as “very friendly.” Thirty-two percent described the president as “neutral,” 12% as “unfriendly” and 3% as “very unfriendly.”

When detailed questions were asked, a picture emerged of a public that has considerable questions about the president’s Middle East policies.

For instance, when asked whether Romney or Obama would better promote Israel’s interests, 29% said Romney and 22% said Obama. Perhaps most telling was that while Obama had been in office for more than three years, 49% said they did not know or would not answer the question.

Thirty percent of the respondents said US-Israeli ties would improve under a Romney presidency, 26% said they would remain the same and only 6% said they would get worse.

If you read the whole thing, you will discover there is a lot of ambivalence here about Obama. It's ambivalence and not hostility because most Israelis - the substantial majority who are not English speakers - do not appreciate just how hostile to us Obama has been. I find it astounding that most Israeli Jews don't think Obama would behave differently toward us in a second term. I wonder how many of them realize that Obama would not stand for reelection at the end of that term, and therefore probably could care less what effects his policies would have on the Democratic party.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Mitt Romney, US-Israel relationship

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:56 AM