Majority of Israelis see Obama as fair

Most Israelis regard US President Barack Obama as fair in his dealings with their country, despite a simmering diplomatic row.

JERUSALEM, March 19, 2010 (AFP) - Most Israelis regard US President Barack Obama as fair in his dealings with their country, despite a simmering diplomatic row between the two countries, according to a poll published on Friday in the Haaretz newspaper.

The poll said 51 percent of those questioned believed Obama was businesslike in his relations with the Jewish state and 18 percent saw him as friendly. Twenty-one percent considered him hostile and 10 percent had no opinion.

It found that 48 percent of respondents believed Israel should continue building homes for Jews in east Jerusalem, despite the anger such action has provoked in the United States and elsewhere.

Forty-one percent felt Israel should stop such construction until the conclusion of peace talks with the Palestinians.

The survey, conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, questioned 499 people and had a 4.3 percentage point margin of error, the left-leaning newspaper said.

The Middle East diplomatic Quartet urged Israel on Friday to stop building settlements and set a 2012 target for a deal with the Palestinians.

An Israeli plan to build more homes in annexed east Jerusalem precipitated the worst crisis in US-Israeli relations in years.

East Jerusalem is the mainly Arab half of the Holy City that was captured and then annexed by Israel after the 1967 Six Day War. Israel considers the city its eternal and indivisible capital, while the Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.