Jerusalem Post
Poll: 12% of Israeli Jews consider
Obama to be pro-Israel
By
GIL HOFFMAN
05/27/2011
01:54
Despite
AIPAC speech, 40% of 600 Jewish Israelis deem US
administration pro-Palestinian in ‘Jerusalem
Post’/Smith poll.
Talkbacks (24)
US
President Barack Obama’s attempt to portray
himself as pro-Israel in a high-profile speech to the
American
Israel Public Affairs Committee on Sunday
did not succeed, according to a Smith Research
poll sponsored by The Jerusalem Post.
The speech was intended to correct impressions
that he was hostile toward Israel, which may
have been reinforced by a landmark address about the Middle East
that he delivered at the State Department last
Thursday, and by a tense press conference at the
White House
on Friday with Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu.
In the AIPAC speech, Obama chose not to
specifically rule out the “return” to Israel of
millions of descendants of Palestinian refugees,
and did not announce his first visit to Israel as
president, as many hoped he would. But he did
insist that Israel must remain the Jewish
“homeland,” indicating opposition to the
Palestinian demand for refugees’ “return, spoke
about Jews’ yearning for Israel through the
centuries, listed many ways in which his
administration was helping
Israel and clarified his position on creating a
Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 lines with
mutually agreed land swaps.
When asked in the poll whether they saw Obama’s
administration as more pro-Israel, more pro-Palestinian or
neutral, just 12 percent of Israeli Jews surveyed said more
pro-Israel, while 40% said more pro-Palestinian, 34% said
neutral and 13% did not express an opinion.
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Still, the poll found that the gap between Israelis who say
the administration is pro-Palestinian and those deeming it
pro-Israel has narrowed since previous surveys.
The poll of 600 Jewish Israelis, representing a statistical
sample of the adult Jewish population, was taken on Monday
and Tuesday and had a 4-percentage point margin of error.
Respondents who defined themselves at the left end of the
political map were more likely than others to deem the Obama
administration more pro-Israel – 28% compared to 12%. Among
Kadima supporters, 37% said the administration was more
pro-Palestinian; 19% said it was more pro-Israel.
The respondents most likely to label the Obama administration
as more pro- Palestinian were Orthodox Israelis, at 58%, and
right-wing respondents, at 53%. Among Likud supporters, 49%
said the administration was more pro-Palestinian; 11% said it
was more pro-Israel.
The question asked was exactly the same as in five 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 his 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 4%, and rose to 9% in
March 2010.
Since then, the share who
consider this White House more pro-Israel has risen gradually
and slightly, while the percentage saying it is more
pro-Palestinian has gradually fallen.
Polls taken in March and July 2010 found that 9% and 10%,
respectively, called the administration more pro- Israel; 48%
and 46%, respectively, called it more pro-Palestinian.
The gap between Israelis calling the administration more
pro-Palestinian and more pro-Israel has fallen from 47% in
August 2009 to 28% this week.
Obama fared better in a Dialog poll published by
Haaretz on Thursday,
which found that a quarter of the public considers him
friendly to Israel, while 20% called him hostile and 43%
described him as “businesslike.”
The Dialog poll found that 47% of the Israeli public deemed
Netanyahu’s trip to Washington a success, while only 10%
viewed it as a failure.
Nearly half of the public
felt pride at seeing Netanyahu address Congress on Tuesday,
while only 5% deemed it a “missed opportunity.”
The proportion of the population expressing satisfaction with
Netanyahu’s performance as prime minister rose from 38% in the
last
Haaretz poll
five weeks ago, to 51%.
Other polls also indicated a rise in support for Netanyahu and
his
Likud Party since his
speeches in Washington.
A Telesker poll published in
Ma’ariv on Wednesday found that the Likud
had strengthened against Kadima. The poll predicted that the
Likud would rise from 27 to 30 Knesset seats, while Kadima
would fall from 28 to 27.
Asked who was more fit to be prime minister, 36.9% said
Netanyahu; 28.3% said Kadima leader
Tzipi Livni; 9.2%
said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of Israel Beiteinu;
2.6% said Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Independence; and
18.2% answered none of the above.
A Sarid Institute poll broadcast on Channel 2 Tuesday night
found that 38% of Israelis found Netanyahu most fit to be
prime minister, and 35% Livni. The poll found that the Likud
had grown in support at Kadima’s expense.
Since the last poll taken by the institute during
a crisis over gas prices, Kadima fell by five seats and
Likud rose by four.
The poll found that if an election were held now, Likud
would win 34 seats (up seven from the last election in
February 2009); and Kadima 29 (up one).
A Geocartographic Institute poll broadcast on Channel 1
Tuesday night predicted that the Likud would win 33 seats,
and Kadima 22. According to that survey,
61% of Jewish Israelis oppose Obama’s formula of the 1967
lines with land swaps as a basis for an agreement with the
Palestinians, while only 27% favor it.
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