After public rebuke in Biden visit, Israeli approval of Obama soars to 69%

[Yeahyeah]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

SHEERA FRENKEL, McClatchy Newspapers

JERUSALEM -- After last week's public row with Washington over Israel's decision to build new Jewish dwellings in disputed East Jerusalem, many Israelis are re-evaluating the relationship between the Jewish state and its No. 1 foreign ally.

Surprisingly, President Barack Obama's popularity in Israel is on the rise, and the harsh criticism of Israel's actions by his top aides -- as an "insult" and "slap in the face" during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden -- may have strengthened the trend.

A new poll published in Haaretz, the left-of-center Hebrew daily newspaper, found that 69 percent of Israelis think that Obama's treatment of Israel is "friendly and fair," a sea change from a similar poll last June in The Jerusalem Post, a right-of-center English daily, which found that only 6 percent of Israelis saw Obama as "pro-Israel."

To judge from random interviews at Jerusalem's Mahne Yehuda outdoor market, the new poll tapped a genuine shift in sentiment, Roni Richtman, a 21-year-old student at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, told McClatchy Newspapers he appreciated the "firm but understanding" manner in which the Americans handled the dispute.>


Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/world/index.ssf/2010/03/after_public_rebuke_on_biden_v.html

[eridani]

1. Let's hope they have the sense to push this and force some concessions

--on settlements. Way better than the rubber stamp the Bushies always provided.

[O is 44]

2. I'm so with you there, PM meets w/Pres tomorrow

I hope the President remains firm what they did to our VP was out of line.

[lib2DaBone]

3. Why do we give $3 Billion per year to Israel?

..When money is so desperately needed at home for jobs?

What do we get for $3 Billion per year? Just askin'....

[jberryhill]

4. Because a lot of that is loan guarantees and credits to buy our weapons /nt

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[proteus_lives]

7. The personality disorder regarding Israel is fierce on DU.

There is a dark under-current that fights to the surface here.

[nodehopper]

9. Israel is a democracy in the Ancient Greek sense

for its citizens. Of course it has an entire second class of residents, who do not have the same rights. And I, as an Eastern European immigrant Jew, raised on "Exodus" and whose whole family rabidly and uncritically supports Israel, just cannot get behind that. If I oppose racism and injustice, then I have to do so everywhere, including Israel.

[Chulanowa]

10. And I don't like paying for murder and apartheid

Has nothing to do with Jews, because I feel the same way about our financial support to Saudi Arabia.

Of course, people like you and proteus, you can't see past ethnicity. For you to be alluding that others are racist is therefore pretty fucking laughable.

[Turborama]

11. There's no anti-Semitism implied in the post you are referring to

No matter how you try and spin it. Why didn't you just answer the question with something like "we are supporting the only western democracy in the Middle East" instead of resorting to bullying with an unwarranted slur?

[boppers]

14. "the only western democracy in the Middle East"?

Iraq.
Afghanistan.

That old talking point is dead.

Oh, and FWIW, while most democracies allowed land owners to vote, Israel is unique in refusing absent land-owners a vote...

[Turborama]

15. I didn't mean it to sound like that would have been my answer

I was just offering a less antagonistic/abusive version of the answer they did give.

Actually, Turkey could be added to that list as well...

[Christa]

13. Where do you get that from?

Me, I just do not like unfounded accusations.

[Christa]

12. Excellent question

I have asked this numerous times here as well as on other forums, and every time I am accused of being anti-Semite. It has nothing to do with the fact that we are giving money to Israel because they are Jews, as someone said to you here as well.

It has to do with the fact that the US give more money in aid to Israel than to the whole of South America and Africa combined.

I have not yet received and answer as to why it is acceptable to give 3 billion dollars in aid to anyone at all?

[hulka38]

5. "disputed East Jerusalem"

I think McClatchy is very good relative to the rest of American media but even they don't seem interested in challenging the misleading terminology that they are expected to use.

[Left Coast2020]

8. World approval of this President is really refreshing to see----

---compared to the crap ratings of the war monger administration.