Tracking events and trends in Israel, the U.S., Russia and throughout the Epicenter (the Middle East & North Africa)

NEW POLL: ONLY 13% OF ISRAELIS SAY PRESIDENT OBAMA IS “NOT HOSTILE” TO JEWISH STATE

Israeli overwhelmingly continue to feel President Obama is hostile to the Jewish State. In fact, according to a new poll published in Ha’aretz, only 13% of Israeli say the President is “not hostile” to Israel. Meanwhile, “a majority of Israelis believe “any price” must be paid to restore prisoners in enemy hands to their families. A survey carried out by the Truman Institute at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Public Opinion in Ramallah showed that 52 percent of Israelis support this view. However, 35 percent of Israelis maintained that terrorists responsible for the deaths of Israelis should not be released.”

WSJ: Europe’s Israel Obsession — “Baroness Catherine Ashton of Upholland (the European Union’s new chief diplomat in the likely case you don’t know her) isn’t exactly what one would call “experienced.” Perhaps to shed her much-deserved reputation as a foreign-policy novice, she used her maiden speech in the European Parliament to fuel the Continent’s No. 1 international-affairs obsession: trashing the Jewish state.”