Poll: Israeli public backs Netanyahu in dust-up with US

Israel Radio: 40% of the public agrees with PM's criticism; 55% say J'lem can't count on the US to worry about its security concerns.

By HERB KEINON
Netanyahu and Kerry at Rome’s Villa Taverna 370 (photo credit: Reuters)
Netanyahu and Kerry at Rome’s Villa Taverna 370
(photo credit: Reuters)
The public has Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s back in the public tiff with the US over policy toward Iran, according to an Israel Radio poll broadcast on Thursday.
Though opposition MKs lashed out at Netanyahu over the past few days for publicly taking loud issue with US policy, 40 percent of the Israeli public believes his criticism was both justified and in the right measure, the poll showed.
According to the poll, 22% feel the criticism was legitimate but exaggerated, while only 9% said the criticism was not justified. Fully 29% of the respondents did not know.
The Rafi Smith telephone poll was carried out on Wednesday among a representative sample of 400 Israeli Jews. It has a 4.5 percentage point margin of error.
A majority of the public, some 55%, said Israel could not count on the US to worry about its security concerns in the negotiations with the Iranians.
Only 31% said Israel could rely on the US in the talks, while 14% did not know. Even among those who identify as left wing, 48% said Israel could not count on the US in Geneva, while only 36% said it could.
On the day the media was full of reports of US Secretary of State John Kerry lobbying senators against tougher Iran sanctions and telling them to ignore what Israel was saying, 42% of the Israeli public said the US did not give Israel a full and accurate picture of the negotiations that took place in Geneva last weekend.
Another 24% said they believed the information given Israel was accurate, and 34% had no opinion.