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But How Would Israelis Vote In The US Elections?

Romney’s crucial 7-point advantage

by
Irin Carmon
June 15, 2012
This week in friendly. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty)
This week in friendly. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty)

Here is a headline in the Jerusalem Post proclaiming that “Most Israelis think Romney would be ‘friendlier.’” Another sign of the rightward drift of the country? Maybe Israelis are really racist or, alternatively, they’ve seen into Obama’s soul and know how much he really hates Israel? The answer, as far as the poll being reported on goes, is none of the above, since so far as I can tell there is nothing in it to match the headline.

Then again, it is Friday.

In other words, in 2007 – before he’d even scored the nomination — 73 percent described Obama as friendly to Israel, which then dipped dramatically in the year after he was elected, to 38 percent, and has subsequently risen a bit to 45 percent. Here are the only questions that mention Mitt Romney, besides a specific question about Iran policy:

The only conclusion from this survey is that Obama needs to make a surprise visit to Jerusalem to shore up the all-important Israeli electoral votes. Otherwise, let a thousand conspiracy email forwards bloom.


Irin Carmon is a senior correspondent at New York magazine and co-author of The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her Twitter feed is @irin.