Majority of Israelis against Netanyahu speaking on Iran in U.S. Congress: poll

A majority of Israelis believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should cancel his upcoming speech in front of the U.S. Congress on the topic of Iran, according to a poll published late Saturday.

Netanyahu was invited to speak in front of the U.S. congress, scheduled for March 3, and advocate further sanctions on Iran, despite the official stand of the U.S. administration that opposes such a move.

According to a poll conducted by the Israeli television Channel 2 news, a majority of Israelis believe Netanyahu's planned speech, which will heighten tensions between Israel and the U.S., is a mistake.

The survey polled 405 Israeli Jews and has a margin of error of 4.8 percent.

According to the survey, 52 percent of the respondents said Netanyahu should not make his congress speech, which will be held just two weeks before the Israeli national elections, with 36 percent saying he should.

Furthermore, 62 percent of the respondents said the speech will not influence the upcoming deal between the P5+1 countries (China, Russia, Germany, France, U.S. and U.K.) and Iran over the latter's nuclear program.

Netanyahu was invited to make the speech by Speaker of the United States House of Representatives John Boehner, to express his hardline approach towards a nuclear Iran and advocate for bill proposals to impose further sanctions on Iran.

The bill is opposed by Democrats and is not expected to pass, and U.S. President Barack Obama said he would veto such a bill if it did come to pass.

Several U.S.-based Jewish lobbies and groups, including J-Street and center-left Israeli politicians, called upon Netanyahu to cancel the speech, claiming the speech is purely political propaganda ahead of the elections.

Last week, the Ha'aretz daily published a poll conducted by the Boston-based Ruderman Family foundation. According to the poll, a majority of Israelis believe U.S.-Israel relationships have been on a steady decline in the past five years.

It found that about 35 percent of Israelis find the relationship to have gone downhill "to a great extent," while 45 percent said the ties have deteriorated by some extent or a small extent.

The P5+1 countries started negotiating with Iran in order to curb its nuclear program in mid-2013, upon the election of moderate leader Hassan Rouhani.

In November 2013, the parties reached an interim deal, which Israel's Netanyahu called a "historic mistake," and are aiming to finalize an agreement by March 24. Endit