News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) On the eve of President Bush's Middle East trip, the American public did not give him positive marks on his handling of several issues relating to problems in the region. A Harris poll taken last week showed that 62 percent of Americans feel he was not handling the Israeli/Palestinian conflict properly, while only 25 percent give him positive marks. As far as his efforts in the war on terror, only about a third – 32 percent said he was handling the issue properly, while 61 percent said he was not.

Bush did better among Republicans than Democrats in the poll, as was to be expected – but not among Conservative Republicans. Only 46 percent of this group said he was properly addressing the Mideast conflict.