Almost half of American voters oppose Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to speak before Congress this week, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday.
Forty-eight percent said that Congressional leadership should not have invited Netanyahu to the U.S. so close to the Israeli elections, while 30 percent said the invitation was fine, and 22 percent did not have an opinion on the speech.
The poll shows a partisan split on the invitation, with 66 percent of Democrats opposing the invitation and only 28 percent of Republicans opposing.
Yet disapproval of Netanyahu’s speech does not appear to have had a negative impact on his approval ratings in the U.S.
According to the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Netanyahu’s approval rating has increased in the last year. In the most recent poll, the Prime Minister has a 30 percent positive rating, up from a 24 percent positive rating a year ago.
And according to a Gallup poll released Monday, 45 percent of Americans view Netanyahu favorably, up from 35 percent in 2012.
Sixty percent of Republicans said they view Netanyahu favorably, while only 31 percent of Democrats do. But Netanyahu’s favorability has still improved among Democrats, despite their opposition to his speech this week.
Netanyahu’s favorability has gone up 6 points with Democrats and 10 points with Republicans since 2012.
