Israel may be openly hoping that Republican challenger Mitt Romney will end up stealing the presidency from Barack Obama, but for the Palestinians it makes little difference who takes over the White House.

With the US presidential race drawing to a close, Israelis have come out strongly in favour of the Republican nominee who they believe is likely to be a better friend to the Jewish state than President Obama.

Figures published in a Peace Index poll showed a clear majority of Jewish Israelis -- 57 percent -- believe that when it comes to Israel's interests, Romney would be the best president, compared with 22 percent for Obama.

"Israelis are a bit suspicious of Obama and prefer Romney," said Eytan Gilboa, an expert on US-Israeli relations at Bar Ilan University.

"This is because of Obama's tough attitude -- personally to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but also on the diplomatic level towards Israel," he said.

Netanyahu himself "would prefer Romney, because he feels that relations with Obama were tense, that there was not enough cooperation -- neither personally nor nationally," Gilboa explained

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