WASHINGTON (JTA) — American Democratic voters increasingly disapprove of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a poll found.
The poll published Friday by the Brookings Institution showed disapproval ratings for the Israeli prime minister among Democratic voters rising to 34 percent from 22 percent since last year. His favorable ratings dropped to 18 percent from 25 percent, while the “neither favorable nor unfavorable” column remained the largest, 35 percent this year and 38 percent last year.
Among Republicans, Netanyahu’s favorability ratings did not budge – 51 percent this year as opposed to 49 percent last year, within the poll’s 3.3 percentage point margin of error.
Unfavorables among GOP voters were 13 percent this year and 9 percent last year, and the “neither” column was 26 percent this year and 30 percent last year.
Netanyahu clashed openly with President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress over the last year on the Iran nuclear deal. He accept an invitation from the Republican congressional leadership to address Congress without the knowledge of the president and Democratic leaders. In that March speech, he strongly opposed Obama’s Iran policy.
The survey of 875 adults was taken Nov. 4-10.
