On Iran Strike, Israelis Trust Obama Over Bibi

[Lakhota]

By Robert Naiman

A funny thing happened on the way to the Showdown at the AIPAC Corral, where pro-war Republicans and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been planning to ambush President Obama with charges of being "soft on Iran" because U.S. military commanders have said that an Israeli military attack on Iran would be a very bad idea.

Someone asked the Israeli public what they thought.

And it turns out that the majority of Israelis have their shekels on the lanky guy from Chicago.

Who knew?

In a poll conducted this month by Professor Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland and Israel's Dahaf Institute, only 19 percent of Israelis said they would support an Israeli military attack on Iran if it is not approved by the U.S.

But that's not even the most striking result of the poll.

The poll suggests that the reason that the majority of Israelis don't support an Israeli military strike on Iran without U.S. approval is not because they are afraid of making the U.S. angry. The poll suggests that the reason that the majority of Israelis do not support an Israeli military strike on Iran without U.S. approval is that they share the cautions of U.S. officials against an Israeli strike on Iran: they think that the costs would be high, and the benefits small or nonexistent.

That is, they see the assessments of U.S. officials of the dubious merits of an Israeli strike as good data -- better data than they are getting from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

More: Robert Naiman: On Iran Strike, Israelis Trust Obama Over Bibi

Opinion: Do Israelis support a strike on Iran? - Shibley Telhami - POLITICO.com

 

[Sallow]

Obama is actually well liked and quite popular among Israelis. American Jews dig him too.

True story.

 

[JoeB131]

Not surprising.

The ugly reality is, the Israelis can't stop the Iranian program. They'll only tick them off. So they are trying to manipulate the west into taking care of Iran for them by threatening to take unilateral action that will wreck the world economy.

As much as it pains me to praise Obama, he's got it about right. He got the Europeans to go along with economic sanctions that are hurting Iran, and that will bring the Mullahs to the negotiating table eventually...

I don't think we are going to be able to keep the Mullahs from eventually getting the Cutting Edge Weapon of 1945, because the technology is just too easy to produce.

 

[CaughtInTheMid]

damn. we've created an entire country that looks to us to back them up on the stupid crap they do. if we're not their nanny, there is no such word.