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Tough Crowd

Israel Cools on Obama

President Obama's tough stance on Israeli settlements doesn't seem to be winning him many friends among Jewish Israelis, even while sizable margins disagree with the settlements themselves. Just 4 percent of Jewish Israelis think Obama is "pro-Israel," according to a new poll by the Jerusalem Post. Some 51 percent of respondents said Obama's administration was more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israel while 35 percent said it was neutral. In a May 17 poll by the same paper, 31 percent of Israelis considered Obama pro-Israel, a precipitous decline. While a dispute over the Obama administration's call for a freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank has accounted for much of the drop in popularity, only half of Jewish Israelis say they're opposed to freezing settlements for a year as part of a deal brokered by the United States, versus 41 percent who say they support the idea and 9 percent who expressed no opinion.

August 28, 2009 2:53 AM


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