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Poll: Israelis View Obama Favorably
By AP / AMY TEIBEL <http://www.time.com/time/letters/email_letter.html> Friday,
Mar. 19, 2010

(JERUSALEM) — A poll released Friday shows that Israelis overwhelmingly have
a favorable impression of President Barack Obama, despite a grave diplomatic
feud with the U.S. over east Jerusalem construction.

Between a total of three polls released Friday, Israelis sent mixed signals
about their own leader. Thirty-six percent of those questioned for one poll
thought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was best suited to lead Israel,
versus 26% for his closest challenger, opposition leader Tzipi Livni. But
another poll showed Livni's Kadima Party would overtake Netanyahu's Likud by
a wider margin if elections were held today.(See pictures of heartbreak in
the Middle East.)<http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1869933,00.html>

All three polls showed a majority of Israelis supported continued
construction in Jerusalem's disputed eastern sector, the issue at the heart
of the U.S.-Israeli row. Support ranged from 48% in one poll to 70% in
another.

Some Israelis have misgivings about Obama, who is cooler to Israel than his
immediate predecessors and has made a big effort to reach out to the Muslim
world.(See pictures of people around the world watching Obama's
Inauguration.)<http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1872900,00.html>

But a Dialog survey of 499 people on Wednesday and Thursday showed that
seven out of 10 Israelis share a favorable view. The poll had a margin of
error of 4.3% points.

Israel's plan to build 1,600 apartments in east Jerusalem, announced during
Vice President Joe Biden's visit here last week, caused one of the most
serious rifts between the two countries in decades.

In Moscow on Friday, the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers — the U.S., U.N., EU
and Russia — reiterated their condemnation of the construction but did not
escalate their criticism of Israel.

Netanyahu tried to defuse the crisis in a call Thursday to U.S. Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who wanted the project canceled. Neither side
has offered details of the confidence-building measures toward the
Palestinians that his office said he proposed.

The row coincided with clashes this week in east Jerusalem, home to shrines
sacred to Jews and Muslims. On Friday, police were out in large numbers in
east Jerusalem in anticipation of another possible round of unrest after
midday Muslim prayers, traditionally a time for protests when tensions are
high.

While Jerusalem remained quiet by midday, protesters in the West Bank town
of Hebron lobbed rocks at Israeli security forces, who responded with tear
gas. The city is controlled by Islamic Hamas militants who also rule the
Gaza Strip.

Militants in Gaza fired a rocket at southern Israel on Friday, a day after a
rocket killed a Thai worker in the first deadly attack on Israel since last
year's Gaza Strip war. No one was injured in Friday's rocket fire and no
group immediately claimed responsibility.

The Dialog survey and two other polls released Friday showed that a
significant number of Israelis support continued building in east Jerusalem,
which Israel annexed after capturing it in 1967. Netanyahu, unlike his
predecessors, opposes sharing the city with the Palestinians, who claim the
eastern sector for a future capital.

Dialog said 41% of respondents would freeze construction during negotiations
with the Palestinians, which were derailed by the Israeli construction
announcement. Forty-eight percent wanted construction to proceed.

The Dahaf Research Institute, which polled 500 people, found that 51%
objected to a settlement freeze and 46% supported one. The survey had a
margin of error of 4.4% points.

A third poll, by Maagar Mohot, indicated that 70% of Israelis support
continued construction. The survey of 511 people on Tuesday and Wednesday
had a margin of error of 4.5% points.

While Israelis consider the neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to be like any
other in the city, the Palestinians and the international community view
them as settlements like those Israel has built in the West Bank.


Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1973501,00.html#ixzz0id1hJM2l
--
Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners
(202) 333-1880
eschwerin@rosemontseneca.co