I did a double take when I read this. I was looking at the Jewish Press write up of the AJC survey of American Jews and looked at this little gem of information two thirds of the way down the page.
On the current state of U.S.-Israel relations, 58 percent approve and 40 percent disapprove of President Obama’s handling of the relationship. By comparison, 70 percent approve of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s handling of U.S.-Israel relations and 28 percent disapprove.Yes, it appears that on matters related to US - Israel relations, Netanyahu is more popular than Obama among US Jews. This is simply astounding to me. Remember that Netanyahu is the Prime Minister from the Likud party... he has been subject to intense attacks from the leftmost parts of the Jewish community. He has proved time and again that he is a competent and able politician.
An Israeli friend once told me that Israeli Prime Ministers generally do better the second time they are elected than the first. Israeli political culture does not punish failure the same way American culture does. When a US politician loses he is generally finished... we only like winners here. In Israel there is a forgiveness of failure and an expectation that you have learned from it.
I think that Netanyahu's tenure has proved that to be a real strength of Israeli culture.
