February 28, 2013 | 6:19 am

Israel Factor: 2016 Looks Like a Great Year

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

Four of the Republican front runners, photos AP/Reuters

A week ago we presented here a comparison between two lists of probable 2016 Presidential candidates and our Israel Factor list of desirable 2016 candidates. The idea was simple: both The Fix and Prez16 have lists of "candidates with the best chances" and we have our own list of candidates that our Factor panel members think are "the best for Israel". As we concluded from looking at the first two lists:

If you add chances to our "good for Israel" rankings, you get the sense that Clinton is the best potential candidate among Democrats and Christie the best candidate among Republicans.

Our previous list, though, was somewhat short of being complete. We based it on The Fix's list of Republican candidates and the Prez16 list of Democratic candidates. Since both have now completed their own rankings of the other party (respectively), it's only natural for us to revisit the lists and present them in full. So what you see here is the following: Republican prospective candidates by The Fix and Prez16 compared to our top Republicans – and Democratic prospective candidates by The Fix and Prez16 compared to our top Democrats (there are a few comments after the tables):

Comments:

1. First, we have to reemphasize: There are candidates we rank and they don't (vice versa), so differences are to be expected - even before we consider the fact that the rankings are completely different in nature (they rank chances for victory, we rank candidates on US-Israel relations). Some of the unranked Israel Factor candidates will be added to our list in the coming months.
2. Regarding Republicans, these lists should be positive news: our panel thinks Bush, Rubio and Christie are all good news for Israel – Rubio and Christie lead the pack in both probability lists. Our panel is skeptical of Paul (family name is surely a major factor), and Paul doesn't rank high (The Fix) or isn't even a candidate worthy of attention (Prez16).
3. The story with the Democrats is also simple: If it's Clinton, everybody's happy. Cuomo is even better (at least according to the Factor), and has good chances according to the probability lists.
4. All in all, as far as Israel is concerned, 2016 looks like a great year.

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