Israel News: Poll Finds Most Americans Disapprove of President Barack Obama 'Snub' to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Israeli critics for weeks have hammered Benjamin Netanyahu for his planned, protocol-breaking speech before the U.S. Congress, but Americans are equally unhappy with President Barack Obama's decision not to meet with the prime minister, a YouGov poll revealed.
Forty-seven percent of Americans think that the invitation House Republicans extended to Netanyahu was "inappropriate," and only 30 percent approve, CBS detailed. But 58 percent of those surveyed also oppose Obama's "snub" and want the president to host the Israeli leader.
Netanyahu is set to address a joint session of Congress on March 3, two weeks before Israelis will decide his fate in legislative elections. The prime minister is expected to criticize the Obama administration's approach to negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.
For the YouGov survey, 1,000 American adults interviewed between Feb 4 and Feb 8, Ynetnews noted.
With many Democratic lawmakers planning to stay away from the event, pollsters asked constituents about whether they want their member of Congress to attend, CBS said.
Forty-six percent answered in the affirmative, while 24 percent asked their representatives and senators to stay away. Thirty percent, meanwhile, were unsure about their preference.
Among Democrats, 39 percent of those surveyed said their lawmakers should not attend Netanyahu's speech. The vast majority of the party's supporters -- 72 percent -- also consider the Republicans' invitation "inappropriate."
Meanwhile, a J Street campaign that protests Netanyahu's address is both "inflammatory and repugnant," Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman complained on Wednesday, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The lobbying group asked American Jews to sign a petition indicating that the Israeli prime minister does not represent them. "He certainly cannot claim any mandate to speak for Jews in the United States," the document reads.
But Foxman, who had called on Netanyahu to rethink the speech, warned the campaign "exacerbates an already heated and politicized moment for (United States-)Israel relations at a critical juncture in the West's negotiations with Iran."
The ADL leader called on Jews to "remember what is at stake."
"Preventing extremist Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon that could threaten Israel's very existence," Foxman insisted. "In that goal, Mr. Netanyahu surely does represent not only Israelis but American Jews as well."
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