Republicans are more likely to support Netanyahu in clashes with Obama, according to a new poll. Photo: Pete Souza/White House.

JNS.org – Americans affiliating with the Republican Party are significantly more likely than Democrats to support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in clashes with US President Barack Obama, a new poll conducted by Bloomberg Politics found.

In the poll, conducted among 1,008 adults from April 6-8, 67 percent of Republicans said they are more sympathetic towards Netanyahu than Obama amid the leaders’ recent disputes on issues such as Iran and a Palestinian state. Democrats were substantially more likely—76 percent—to support Obama over Netanyahu. Overall, 47 percent of Americans support Obama compared to 34 percent who support Netanyahu, with Independents also favoring the president (44 percent to the prime minister’s 37 percent).

“The national poll is consonant with the strongly pro-Israel positioning by most of the Republicans jumping into the 2016 presidential nominating contest,” Bloomberg Politics said, referencing US Sens. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio.

Additionally, Americans were split on the issue of whether or not to support Israel when US interests (as in the case of the Iranian nuclear issue) diverge, with 45 percent of Americans supporting Israel regardless of US interests and 47 in favor of pursuing America’s interests when they differ from Israel’s.

Similarly, Republicans were substantially “more pessimistic” (62 percent) than Democrats (70 percent “more optimistic”) when it came to the recent nuclear framework agreement struck by the Obama administration and world powers with Iran. Independents were mostly split on the issue, with 48 percent more pessimistic and 45 percent more optimistic.