Yesterday President Obama stated his strong opposition to expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Now, Israel is going to have to take some difficult steps as well, and I shared with the Prime Minister the fact that under the roadmap and under Annapolis that there's a clear understanding that we have to make progress on settlements. Settlements have to be stopped in order for us to move forward.
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To those of us who were appalled watching the population of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank mushroom from 171,000 to 479,500 during the Bush/Cheney years (thanks to their anything goes approach to Israel's leaders) it now looks like we have a lot of company inside our Party.
Poll shows partisan divide on Middle East conflict
According to the Zogby International survey, 71 percent of Obama backers believe that the United States should "get tough with Israel" to stop the expansion of settlements, compared to just 26 percent of those who supported Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Also, 80 percent of likely Obama voters were in total agreement with the phrase, "It's time for the United States to get tough with Israel," while just 16 percent of McCain supporters agreed.
Bibi has lots of fans among the Gopasaurs.
But the Zogby poll suggests that Netanyahu's views are a hard sell among Democrats. He is viewed "totally unfavorably" by 49 percent of Obama voters, while only 29 percent viewed him "totally favorably." Meanwhile, 82 percent of McCain voters viewed him as "totally favorably," while only 9 percent viewed him "totally unfavorably."
The message this poll is sending to the Obama White House should be crystal clear. If Obama has to go head to head with Mr. Netanyahu in order to halt further settlement building in the West Bank, a solid majority of Democrats will support him.
From what I've read, stopping further settlement expansion is one of the few things that most of the people on both sides of the I/P debate here on D-Kos seem to agree on.
"We've got your back Mr. President"