.jpg)
Despite Barack Obama's friendly reception of their prime minister last week, the vast majority of Jewish Israelis believe the US president does not favour their country, an opinion poll published Friday showed.
Asked whether they saw Obama's administration as more pro-Israel, more pro- Palestinian or neutral, just 10 percent of Israeli Jews said more pro-Israel, 46 per cent said more pro-Palestinian, 34 per cent said neutral and 10 per cent did not express an opinion, according to the poll commissioned by the Jerusalem Post.
The poll of 515 Jewish Israelis, representing a statistical sample of the adult Jewish population, was taken on Monday through Wednesday and had a margin of error of 4.4 per cent, DPA reported.
The question asked was exactly the same as in four previous polls sponsored by the newspaper since May 2009. The first, taken before the first Netanyahu-Obama meeting in the White House and Obama's June 2009 speech in Cairo, found that 31 per cent considered his presidency more pro-Israel.
The next poll, taken one month later, found a huge shift, with the proportion calling the Obama administration more pro-Palestinian rising from 14 to 50 per cent and the proportion calling it more pro-Israel plummeting to 6 per cent.
Obama was widely seen as trying to reach out to Israelis and Jews last week, bestowing praise on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in sharp contrast to a cold earlier White House meeting in the spring, overshadowed by an Israeli plan to expand a Jewish neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, built on occupied West Bank land.
Obama also gave his first interview as president to an Israeli television station last week.
Asked by Channel 2 interviewer Yonit Levy why he felt Israelis did not believe he had a special connection to their country, Obama replied:
"Some of it may just be the fact that my middle name is Hussein, and that creates suspicion," Obama said. "Some of it may have to do with the fact that I have actively reached out to the Muslim community, and I think that sometimes, particularly in the Middle East, there's the feeling of the friend of my enemy must be my enemy."