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.
