The day after the National Jewish Democratic Council uploaded a video of Sderot
residents singing US President Barack Obama’s praises, a poll released Thursday
shows Israeli Jews – by a 2:1 ratio – believe Republican hopeful Mitt Romney is
more concerned about Israel’s interests than Obama.
The monthly Peace
Index poll commissioned by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv
University asked 516 Israeli Jews whether Obama or Romney “assigns more
importance to defending Israel’s national interests.”
According to the
poll, conducted by the Dahaf Institute on August 7-8, 40 percent of the
respondents said Romney, 19% Obama and 10% said “both to the same extent.”
Another 25% did not know, while 6% said “neither.”
When broken down even
further – into the Left, Center and Right camps – Obama only fares well on the
Left, with Romney polling significantly better both among those who consider
themselves in the Center or on the Right on political-security issues.
In
the Center, 39% see Romney as better for Israel, as opposed to 20% for
Obama.
On the Right, 52% say Romney, and only 13% Obama.
And on
the Left, Obama outpolls Romney 37% – 17%.
The poll has a 4.5 percent
margin of error.
The poll was released two weeks after Romney and US
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta came to Israel for visits, both seeking to win
over pro- Israel supporters in the US.
The poll is interesting because it
is one of only a few surveys of Israeli attitudes toward the two
candidates.
A poll in June commissioned by the Begin-Sadat Center for
Strategic Studies asked a sample of Jewish Israelis “Who would better promote
Israel’s interests, Obama or Romney?” In that survey Romney outpolled Obama
29-22%, with fully 49% either not responding or saying they did not know.