While the impact of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress on the Israeli electorate will not be fully apparent until after Tuesday's vote, a Gallup Poll released on Monday indicated that it has weakened his position among the US public. Netanyahu's favorability rating among the American public dropped 7 percentage points – from 45 percent in early February, before the speech, to 38% now, according to the poll. Though his “unfavorable” rating rose from 24% to 29%, more Americans still have a positive, rather than negative, view of the prime minister. This is not true of Democrats, however; 46% of them view him unfavorably, and only 17% favorably. Before the speech, an equal number of Democrats – 32% – held each view. Gallup explained the steep drop among Democrats as a result of their “likely taking their cues about the appropriateness of Netanyahu's address and his message on Iran from President [Barack] Obama, who disagreed both with Netanyahu's addressing Congress and his arguments against a nuclear agreement with Iran.” Among Republicans, in contrast, 62% now have a positive view of the prime minister, as opposed to 60% last month, and only 16% view him unfavorably. Although Netanyahu's favorability rating is significantly lower than the one he had before the speech, it is still his third-highest rating out of seven similar polls Gallup has taken on this issue since 1998. It is also 3 percentage points higher than it was in 2012. In this latest poll, conducted March 5-8 among 1,025 adults, another 33% said they did not have an opinion of Netanyahu. The poll had a ±4% margin of error.
