A recent poll by CNN/ORC shows that 63 percent of Americans oppose House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress.
Part of the disapproval over Boehner’s invitation is that he invited Netanyahu without first discussing it with the White House, as is standard procedure in similar situations.
Netanyahu is expected to ask Congress to forgo any diplomatic efforts to get Iran to dismantle its nuclear program, a plan which he sees as naive.
As with most things in Washington, this has become a mostly partisan issue. Just 14 percent of Democrats believe it was a good idea for the speaker to invite Netanyahu. But Boehner’s invitation has garnered far from universal support from Republicans – just 52 percent back his decision.
The poll also found that a majority feels that the US should stay out of the conflicts between Israel and Palestine, with 66 percent saying that America should remain neutral. A closer examination of that figure shows that 75 percent of Americans under the age of 50 are pushing for neutrality, meaning that long term support may start to lean more towards a neutral stance rather than blindly pro-Israel.
Watch CNN’s coverage of the poll results.
