President Obama is less popular among Israelis than among Iranians, according to a new poll.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the most popular world leader among Israelis, according to a Tuesday poll released by WIN/Gallup International.
The poll asked residents of 65 countries to say whether they had a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable opinion of 10 world leaders.
Worldwide, Obama scored the highest with a 59 percent favorable rating, followed by Merkel with 42 percent, British Prime Minister David Cameron with 37 percent, French President Francois Hollande with 35 percent and Russian President Vladimir Putin with 33 percent. Iranian President Hassan Rohani placed last at 19 percent, just behind Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud with 20 percent.
When given a net score comprised of the difference between the favorable and unfavorable scores, Obama fared the best worldwide with +30 percent. Merkel and Cameron followed with net favorable ratings of +13 and +10 percent, respectively. Putin was the third most unpopular leader with a net score of -10, right behind Salman (-11 percent) and Rohani (-10 percent).
However, Israelis sang a different tune, giving Obama a net score of -22 percent: 61st in the world, in between Putin (-20 percent) and China’s Xi Jinping (22 percent).
Israelis gave Merkel the best net score of +38 percent, well ahead of Cameron who got +15 percent. The only other world leader given a positive net score by Israelis was India’s Narenda Modi at +13 percent.
Rohani was viewed less favorably by Israelis than by citizens of any other country, with a -89 percent rating. Israelis gave a -50 percent net score to Salman, while Iranians gave him -71 percent.
(h/t Haaretz)
