Posted on 01/13/2010 5:21:28 PM PST by SJackson
Here is an excerpt of the Q and A between Charlie Rose and George Mitchell:
Charlie Rose: Why is President
Obama's popularity so low in Israel? It's four percent.George Mitchell: No, that's completely false...Several polls that I've seen in the past month show that he is-I'll give you the numbers, 49 favorable, 45 unfavorable, 43 favorable, 37 unfavorable; it's a reasonable. A plurality support him in Israel and a small plurality oppose him.
The poll Mitchell relies upon seems to be from the New America Foundation. As far as I have been able to determine, this has been the only one poll regarding the views of Israelis towards the administration that comes anywhere near matching Mitchell's statements.
Previous polls done by Israelis themselves have shown far more problematic views , including one that show only 6% of Israelis who see the administration as pro-Israel and one that shows only 4% of Israelis Jews consider Obama pro-Israel.
The New American Foundation is a left wing group, with a connection to Jonathan Soros, son of George
Ben Smith, of Politico , wrote this about the poll's authors:
The surveys authors, who support robust Israeli and American engagement in the peace process, said in an analysis accompanying the poll's findings that the numbers are encouraging, and that the responses leave Netanyahu room to maneuver toward peace, and
Obama sufficient support to demand it.
This poll was basically done by Jim Gerstein (founding VP of J Street - a group that its founder admitted had Barack
Here is one Commentary magazine writer's view of the New America Foundation poll. Noah Pollak is the expert on J Street and he has critiqued J Street's polling methods before
The moral of the story? George Mitchell seems to be using a poll that should be viewed skeptically in order to give him leeway to pressure Israel to comply with American plans. Domestically, will the administration rely on this quite useful poll to justify its actions to American Jews? That strategy may have been presaged by Mitchell's views expressed during the Charlie Rose interview.
Clever...using a poll concocted by political allies to justify pressure on an ally.
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muzzie Mitchell doing herr narcissists bidding, we have a lotta Jew haters in czarville and beyond.
Too bad Mitchell cannot ST*U !
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“Clever...using a poll concocted by political allies to justify pressure on an ally.”
In a nutshell, that is the whole point of J Street too.
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