Netanyahu Is Tenth-Most-Admired Man in U.S. Poll

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may not be the favorite foreign leader at the White House, but he ranks high in a recent U.S. popularity poll.

Netanyahu is the tenth most admired man in the country, according to a poll conducted by the U.K.-based YouGov.

No. 1 was U.S. President Barack Obama. He came in ahead of Pope Francis, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, Billy Graham, Bernie Sanders, Jimmy Carter, Donald Trump, Dalai Lama and Netanyahu, in that order.

The Israeli prime minister was “more admired” than former presidents George W. Bush (11), Bill Clinton (13), and former presidential hopefuls Ben Carson (14), Ted Cruz (18), Marco Rubio (21) and the 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney (20).

Israel was not on the list of countries where the poll was taken, so comparisons could not be made between Netanyahu’s admiration quotient in the U.S. and at home. However, in a March 26th Dialog poll conducted by Prof. Camil Fuchs of Tel Aviv University for Haaretz, 51 percent of respondents said Netanyahu should leave political life rather than run again, while 36 percent said he should run again.

Regarding his performance in office, 43 percent said they were satisfied, 48 percent dissatisfied. This put Netanyahu behind four other senior officials: President Reuven Rivlin 64/19; Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon 50/34; Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon 58/30; IDF Chief Gadi Eisenkot 68/10; and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein 60/18. Opposition leader Isaac Herzog, Netanyahu’s only declared challenger, who lost to him in the last election, was at the bottom of the list, 34 percent satisfied versus 45 dissatisfied.

In the worldwide YouGov standings, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates was ranked the most admired man in the world for the third consecutive year.