Gallup: 50% of Israelis Approve of U.S. Leadership

About half of the Israeli public approved of U.S. leadership in 2015, down from 54 percent in 2014, according to Gallup’s 2016 U.S.-Global Leadership Report published last Thursday.

According to the survey, conducted in 132 countries across the globe, 50 percent of Israelis approve of the Obama administration’s leadership, while 40 percent disapprove. In the Palestinian territories,  only 9 percent approved of U.S. leadership, while 79 percent disapproved. The numbers are lower

Approval of the U.S. in Israel is lower than the 65 percent in the United Kingdom,  58 percent in France ,and 53 percent in South Korea. Overall approval of U.S. leadership remained steady worldwide in the second-to-last year of Obama’s second term, with median approval standing at 45% across 132 countries, according to Gallup. Russia was the least approving of America’s leadership. Just 1% of Russians approved of U.S. leadership in 2015, down from the previous record-low 4% approval in 2014.

In 2008, during President George W. Bush’s eighth year in office, approval of U.S. leadership stood at 62 percent in Israel. Only 27 percent disapproved.

A recent poll showed that a majority of Israelis (51 percent) think the next president would be better than President Barack Obama, while 26 percent see no change. A mere 8 percent think the next president would be worse than Obama and 15 percent did not know or had no opinion.