Israel Matzav

Poll: More Israelis view Obama as hostile than six months ago

A newly released JPost Smith poll finds that more Israelis view President Obama as 'pro-Palestinian' - and less view him as pro-Israel - than was the case six months ago.

The gap between the percentage of Jewish Israelis who consider US President Barack Obama’s administration more pro-Palestinian and those who deem it more pro-Israel rose by 10 percentage points over the past six months, according to a Smith Research poll sponsored by The Jerusalem Post.

The poll found that 28% believe the Obama administration is more pro-Palestinian, 18% find it more pro-Israel and 40% call it neutral, with 14% declining to participate. A Post/Smith poll asking the same question in April found that the proportion of Israelis who called the administration more pro-Israel and more pro- Palestinian was equal at 24%.

Israelis who identify themselves as right-wing were four times as likely to deem the Obama administration more pro-Palestinian than were leftwing Israelis, at 44% to 11%.

Among left-wing Israelis, 28% said the administration was more pro-Israel and 52% said it was neutral. Among rightwingers, 15% said it was more pro-Israel and 25% said it was neutral.

The poll of 500 respondents representing a statistical sample of the adult Israeli Jewish population was taken on Tuesday and Wednesday last week.

It had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

And here's a significant explanation of why Prime Minister Netanyahu has remained on top of the heap throughout the Obama administration.

Citing the Post’s polls in his book Bending History: Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy (2012), former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk wrote: “The Israeli prime minister knew from bitter experience that the Israeli public would punish him for mishandling relations with a popular US president, but he also knew that they would support him if he stood up to an unpopular US president, which is what Obama fast became in Israeli eyes.”

A poll by a different pollster found that 54% of Israelis felt Obama was more pro-Israel immediately after his September 2011 UN speech, which was considered pro-Israel.

Quite a drop. 

Maybe Israelis aren't so dumb after all.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Israelis voting in US elections, Mitt Romney

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:21 AM