President Obama is fond of saying things like, “I won,” and “I’m the president.”
Well, Netanyahu won. And he’s the Prime Minister. And Israelis are pretty happy with what he’s doing right now.
In other news, 43 percent of Israelis think the Benjamin Netanyahu government is doing a better job than its predecessor, as opposed to 30 percent who said it is faring worse than the previous Ehud Olmert-led government, according to a poll published Friday in the Haaretz daily.
The Dialog poll also found than Netanyahu himself enjoys a 49 percent approval rating from the public, with 52 percent saying he is best suited to lead the country, as opposed to 34 percent saying opposition leader Tzipi Livni was a better fit.
Israel’s proponents have been saying this all along—the Obama administration’s attempt to repeat what Bill Clinton did to Netanyahu in the 90s will fail. Netanyahu was elected by the will of the people, and is doing what his people want him to do. Those are pretty high numbers for a man who was elected without a party majoriy in the Knesset.
The Ha’aretz spin is negative, of course, since Ha’aretz wanted Tzipi Livni. But here are the salient facts:
The survey by Dialog, conducted Thursday under the auspices of Prof. Camil Fuchs of Tel Aviv University, found Netanyahu’s approval ratings were 18 percent higher than Tzipi Livni’s – a much larger margin than when they were competing for prime minister. Asked who was better suited to be prime minister, 52 percent said Netanyahu, while only 34 said Livni.
[…] Netanyahu’s approval ratings may have jumped 5 points since the last Dialog survey, on June 15. In the most recent survey, 49 percent of the 500 respondents said they were satisfied with Netanyahu’s performance.
So Netanyahu’s approval ratings are going up, more than half of Israelis think he is the right man to lead the country, and Livni’s approval ratings are dropping like lead.
Say, President Obama: Netanyahu won.