'US dislikes Obama's Israel approach'

44% of Americans disapprove of president's stance on ME conflict.

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDE
Obama Huh? 311 (photo credit: AP)
Obama Huh? 311
(photo credit: AP)
WASHINGTON – A plurality of Americans disapprove of how President Barack Obama is handling the situation between Israelis and Palestinians, and an overwhelming majority call for the US to be a strong supporter of Israel, according to a new poll.
A national Quinnipiac University survey found that 44 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian issue, with 35% approving, the poll’s only foreign policy question with negative results.
In contrast, slim-to-large pluralities backed his handling of the war in Afghanistan, terrorism and nuclear issues. When it comes to Iran, the margin of approval was narrower, with 44% approving and 43% disapproving.
On Iran, Jewish support was greater than among the population as a whole, with 50% approving and 42% disapproving of Obama’s policies. On Israel, however, 67% of American Jews don’t like his approach, and only 28% backed it.
Only 3% of all Americans consider Obama a “strong supporter” of Israel,as opposed to 42%, who say he isn’t. However, in contrast to whiteCatholics and Protestants, more US Jews (50%) saw him as supportivethan not (46%).
Overall, 66% of those polled said he should be a strong supporter of Israel, with only 19% saying he shouldn’t.
More Americans familiar with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu havefavorable rather than unfavorable opinions of him (by a margin of 30 to14), with his favorability margin rising among American Jews to 58 to26.
Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,930 registered voters nationwidebetween April 14 and 19 for the survey, which has a margin of error of+/- 2.2 percentage points.