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September 5, 2006

In News

By Haaretz Staff

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is the “best” candidate in the 2008 race for Israel, a panel of eight Israeli experts assembled by Haaretz has determined.

Giuliani is followed by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Arizona Senator John McCain and New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Ranking bottom of the list is Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

As part of a new project, The Israel Factor: Ranking the presidential candidates” the panel will rank the candidates every month, up until the 2008 election, awarding them marks out of 10 on a series of questions that will determine which candidates are “best” for Israel.

The project is part of Rosner’s Domain, and is moderated by Haaretz Chief U.S. Correspondent, Shmuel Rosner. Professor Camil Fuchs of Tel Aviv University, who is also the Haaretz pollster, is responsible for the statistical analysis of the rankings.

The panel also concluded that the chances of any of the candidates ordering future military action in Iran were not very high. Giuliani scored highest on this question, followed by Gingrich and McCain.

Clinton was the candidate the panel considered most likely to engage more vigorously in mediating a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. She was followed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former presidential candidate John Kerry.