Israel Matzav: Smith poll: 9% of Israeli Jews think Obama pro-Israel before he snubbed Netanyahu again

Smith poll: 9% of Israeli Jews think Obama pro-Israel before he snubbed Netanyahu again

A Smith poll taken for the Jerusalem Post on Sunday and Monday - before President Obama abused Prime Minister Netanyahu yet again - showed that only 9% of Israeli Jews believe that Obama is pro-Israel. The poll has a margin of error of 4.5%, which means that it is fairly close to last summer's results that showed 6% and 4% of Israeli Jews believing that Obama is pro-Israel (Hat Tip: Norman F).

Forty-eight percent said that the Obama presidency favored the Palestinian side, 30% said his administration was neutral and 13% chose not to express an opinion for the survey, which has a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

The poll of a representative sample of 500 Israelis was conducted on Sunday and Monday after weeks of heightened tensions between Obama and Israel, but before the crisis intensified during Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House.

Respondents who consider themselves right-wing were more likely than the rest of the population to characterize the Obama administration as more pro-Palestinian (72%). Those who define themselves as left-wing were more likely to call the administration in Washington more pro-Israel (16%).

The number of Israelis who see Obama’s policies as pro-Israel has risen from 4% in the last Smith Research poll taken on behalf of the Post in August. In that poll, 51% of Jewish Israelis said Obama’s administration was more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israel, while 35% considered it neutral and 10% declined to express an opinion.

By comparison, 88% of Jewish Israelis felt that the George W. Bush administration was pro-Israel.

Some of you may recall that last Friday I posted a review of Israeli pollsters in which I characterized Smith as 'centrist.'

On the other hand, I found this little blurb from the end of the JPost report disturbing.

Meanwhile, a CNN poll conducted on March 19-21 and released on Tuesday found that 39% of Americans see Israel as an ally, while another 41% consider Israel friendly to the US but not an ally. Twelve percent said they consider Israel unfriendly and 5% said Israel is an enemy.

The CNN survey was conducted through telephone interviews with 1,030 adult Americans. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

39%? That's all?

Israel Matzav: Smith poll: 9% of Israeli Jews think Obama pro-Israel before he snubbed Netanyahu again