President Obama’s war of words with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has hurt Obama’s standing in Israel, as a majority of Israelis have concluded that the U.S president is pro-Palestinian. But Obama’s attacks have not hurt the standing of Israel, or even of Netanyahu, in the United States.
So suggests a poll conducted by Neil Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies and Stan Greenberg of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (GQRR). The pollsters put the following question to 800 likely U.S. voters:
Thinking about the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in the Middle East, please tell me whether, in general, you consider yourself to be an Israel supporter, Palestinian supporter, or neither/undecided.
59 percent of the respondents said they were Israel supporters, compared to 8 percent who support the Palestinians. This represented something of a rebound in support for Israel; after Obama’s Cairo speech, only 49 percent of respondents said they considered themselves Israel supporters.
In more good news, respondents by a margin of 57-39 percent said they believe Israel is committed to peace. Only 36 percent thought the PA is committed to peace, while 30 percent somehow thought Hamas is.
And now for my favorite result: When respondents were asked whether they had a warm or cold attitude to various leaders, Obama (at 59) barely outpolled Netanyahu (at 56). The poll’s margin of error is 3.5 percent.
Finally, and I liked this too, by a 72%-23% margin, Americans agree with Netanyahu’s policy of not building any settlements, but allowing Israel to accommodate for natural growth of existing settlements.
As Obamamania wears off, Americans are beginning to see the world as it is — or at least as they have traditionally thought it to be — once more.
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