Sunday, June 21, 2009

6% of Israeli's Support Obama



American vs. Israeli Jews. Michael Medved makes the point that Christian are much more likely to have visited the holy land than ethnic/religious Jews. And that conservative Christians are much more likely to be pro-Israel. So it is odd that a voting block like this exists:

Exit polls: 78% of Jews voted for Obama Jerusalem Post

Jews voted for Barack Obama in overwhelming numbers, refuting speculation that Republican John McCain would peel away Jewish support due to concerns about the Democrat's stance on the Middle East and other issues.


Obama picked up 78 percent of the Jewish vote in comparison to McCain's 21% haul, according to exit polls. That rate is about two points higher than what former Democratic candidate John Kerry received in 2004 and similar to the numbers Al Gore and Bill Clinton garnered in previous elections.


"The numbers suggest that some of the analysis that there was skepticism [about Obama] didn't materialize on Election Day. Jews voted strongly Democratic and even more strongly than 2004," said John Green, the Pew Center's senior fellow in religion and American politics. "These numbers look like 2000, when Joe Lieberman was on the ticket" as Gore's vice presidential running mate....


Jerusalem Post/Smith Poll: Only 6% of Israelis see US gov't as pro-Israel

Only 6 percent of Jewish Israelis consider the views of American President Barack Obama's administration pro-Israel, according to a new Jerusalem Post-sponsored Smith Research poll.


The poll, which has a margin of error of 4.5%, was conducted among a representative sample of 500 Israeli Jewish adults this week, following Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's speech in which he expressed his support for a demilitarized Palestinian state.


Another 50% of those sampled consider the policies of Obama's administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israeli, and 36% said the policies were neutral. The remaining 8% did not express an opinion.


The numbers were a stark contrast to the last poll published May 17, on the eve of the meeting between Netanyahu and Obama at the White House. In that poll, 31% labeled the Obama administration pro-Israel, 14% considered it pro-Palestinian and 40% said it was neutral. The other 15% declined to give an opinion.


Israelis' views of Obama's predecessor in the White House, George W. Bush, are nearly the opposite. According to last month's poll, 88% of Israelis considered his administration pro-Israel, 7% said Bush was neutral and just 2% labeled him pro-Palestinian....


One possible explanation for the Obama administration's plummeting approval rating among Israelis is its opposition to building for natural growth in settlement blocs and its refusal to differentiate its policies regarding construction in unauthorized outposts, settlement blocs close to the Green Line and suburbs of Jerusalem.


The poll found that Israelis, by contrast, emphatically distinguish between outposts, isolated settlements and settlement blocs in the West Bank. Regarding outposts, 57% favor removing them, 38% are against, and 5% did not express an opinion.


When asked about freezing construction in "far-flung, isolated settlements," 52% were in favor, 42% were against and 6% would not say. But when it comes to "large settlement blocs like Gush Etzion, Ma'ale Adumim and Ariel," just 27% said they were in favor of stopping building, 69% were against and 4% did not express an opinion.