Despite Criticism, Majority Supports Obama’s Approach To Middle East
Though some Congressional Democrats are joining with Republicans to voice unease with President Obama for putting public pressure on Israel in the quest for Mideast peace, Obama might keep in mind that a majority supports his approach to the region and backs his demand for a two-state solution.
A majority of Independents, too, backs Obama’s call for two states. This comes by way of a new Gallup poll, which finds:
* 55% approve of his approach to the Mideast, versus only 37% who disapprove.
* 51% overall support an independent Palestinian state, versus only 29% who oppose one.
* 55% of Independents support an independent Palestinian state, versus only 27% who oppose one.
* In one sour note for Obama, only 32% think peace between Israelis and Palestinians is possible.
As the details of Obama’s approach to the region come into focus, there will be tremendous pressure from some quarters to portray his initiatives as politically risky, in order to dampen White House enthusiasm for putting meaningful pressure on both sides of the dispute. So the above numbers might be worth keeping in mind. It’ll also be worth watching to see if emerging details weaken — or strengthen — public support for his approach to the region.
The homepage of this blog is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
We all know 30% approval of anything proves “strong leadership.” Anything over that thresh hold is pandering.
And when people regurgitate that ridiculous meme, “Obama is the new Bush”, we should continue to point out that this is what has replaced the John Bolton method of diplomacy.
.
We’ve gotten quite far away from “bomb,bomb Iran”, haven’t we?
Obama is clearly on the just, correct, long-overdue path here. He routinely shows a willingness to ignore polling (also see: Gitmo) and do what he thinks is best for our nation and its future. Kudos to our President — the best vote I’ve ever cast in my life!
This post reads as if the call for two states is some sort of new-fangled idea that Obama came up with . . . ?
.
“Both Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert offered the Palestinians a state in virtually all of the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. Ariel Sharon gave them a judenrein Gaza. Even Benjamin Netanyahu has offered negotiations without preconditions and said he doesn’t want to govern them.”
The fact is that Israel is our ally and will always be our ally because they have to – they need us. The Muslim world, on the other hand, has been mad as hell at us for 70 years at least and we need to reach some understanding with them because they are NOT our allies, for the most part. Since surviving depends on not destroying each other, we need to find a way to live together.
Let Netanyahu sulk if he wants to – he ain’t gonna do nuttin about it. On the other hand, Iran just might do sumpin and we need to come to some sort of rapprochement with countries like Iran.
Yes he did say that this country is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world! No matter how you want to perceive it , it is what it is! Did only the people who are Obama puppets say otherwise. They are fooling themselves. If he really cared about the American People! He would have bailed out theAMERICAN PEOPLE not BIG BUSINESSES!!!He could have paid off our HOMES WITH OUR TAX DOLLARS!! NO< INSTEAD LETS MAKE SUR THE RICH STAY THAT WAY AND THE POOR< WELL, I guess he thought it was better to have millons of AMERICAN FAMILIES HOMELESS & HUNGRY GREAT JOB! And YES I’m A Democrat, but more so I am an AMERICAN!
LOL @America One Nation
.
translation: No matter what he ACTUALLY said, I am going to keep telling the lie that FoxNews told me.
.
AWESOME!
sbj
.
Are you serious? Do you really not understand the history of the two state solution and its demise under Clinton?
.
Do you need Dr Brzizenski to school you like he did Joe Scarborough?
“If he really cared about the American People! He would have bailed out theAMERICAN PEOPLE not BIG BUSINESSES!!!He could have paid off our HOMES WITH OUR TAX DOLLARS!! NO< INSTEAD LETS MAKE SUR THE RICH STAY THAT WAY AND THE POOR< WELL, I guess he thought it was better to have millons of AMERICAN FAMILIES HOMELESS & HUNGRY GREAT JOB! And YES I’m A Democrat, but more so I am an AMERICAN!”
O sweet jezuz – somebody is off his meds bigtime.
Greg – not to put to fine a point on it – given how things are going – a doctor murdered in his own church on Sunday by a homegrown wingnut terrorist, it might be prudent to pay some attention to some of the nuttier posts.
seriously – I’m not an alarmist, but maybe more caution is in order these days.
Just finished watching the speech and my favorite passage is when he calls Iraq a war of choice. My second part is when he calls out muslim countries for their treatment of women and specifically states women are equal to men.
@sgwhite: I am serious. Ah, Zbigniew Bzrezinski, Carter’s foreign policy genius. (I am not hear to defend Scarborough.)
“At the conclusion of Camp David, Clinton made these points, stressing that Israeli leader Ehud Barak had gone the extra mile to reach peace with the Palestinians: Prime Minister Barak showed particular courage, vision, and an understanding of the historical importance of this moment. Chairman Arafat made it clear that he too remains committed to the path of peace. Prime Minister Barak took some very bold decisions… I will say again, we made progress on all the core issues; we made really significant progress on many of them. The Palestinian teams worked hard on a lot of these areas. But I think it is fair to say that at this moment in time, maybe because they had been preparing for it longer, maybe because they had thought through it more, that the prime minister moved forward more from his initial position than Chairman Arafat on — particularly surrounding the questions of Jerusalem… not so much as a criticism of Chairman Arafat, because this is really hard and had never been done before, but in praise of Barak. He came in knowing that he was going to have to take bold steps and he did it, and I think you should look at it more as a positive toward him than as a condemnation of the Palestinian side… – I would be making a mistake not to praise Barak, because I think he took a big risk, and I think it’s sparked already in Israel a real debate, which is moving Israeli public opinion toward the conditions that will make peace. And so I thought that was important, and I think it deserves to be acknowledged.” (Clinton press conference, July 25, 2000)