New election poll proves partisans ads are not successful in swaying American Jewish voters. (Image: Emergency Committee for Israel
With Mitt Romney solidified as the GOP candidate to face-off this fall against Barack Obama, the general election season has officially commenced. In preparation for the race, the Public Religion Research Institute earlier this month released a survey, “Chosen for what? Jewish values in 2012,” on American Jewish voting attitudes. The report finds the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a potential war with Iran as “major problems,” but not as election issues. To American Jews, Israel is not important in swaying their vote.
From the report:
More than 8-in-10 American Jews rank the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (90%) and Iran’s nuclear program (83%) as major problems within Israel. A majority (53%) of American Jews also agree that Ultra-Orthodox control of religious life in Israel is a major problem, while only 4-in-10 (38%) cite economic and social inequality in Israel as a major problem.
Yet when polled about Israel, only 4% of American Jews cited it as their priority in the election. Health care and the deficit ranked slightly above Israel, and the majority of Jewish voters, 51%, said the economy was the most important election issue. “American Jews are not anti-wealth nor anti-Wall Street, but overall nearly three-quarters (73%) say that the United States’ economic system unfairly favors the wealthy,” according to the results.
Furthermore, not only is Israel a low-ranking issue, but when asked about Jewish identity, only 20% cited “support for Israel.” Though yes, “support for Israel” does outweigh “religious observance” –at 17%– as a source of Jewish identity, a plurality of those polled, 46%, selected “social equality” as the primary source for their Jewish identity.
The report confirms that despite on-going campaigns from both hasbara groups and super-PACs harping on the heart-strings of Israel supporters, in the past four years American Jewish voting behavior and support for Obama have not changed much. With the presidential election only seven months away, 62% of American Jews say they will vote for Barack Obama.
So much for trying to paint all Zionists as Israel-Firsters…
Any Jew who professes to live guided by the Torah,Talmud or the Zohar should be deeply disappointed with the non-religious nature of Zionism which is evil, aggressive colonialism and all of the brutal realities that come with it. They are seeing their Israel as a pariah among the world community, that simply ignores UN Resolutions that condemn their actions, and who works aggressively through AIPAC to bring our Congress in line to favor Fortress Israel in funding and foreign policy. (if there was no Israel, would the world’s attention be focused on Iran?). Israel is becoming an ugly open sore that is an embarrassment to Jews world wide but also a threat to world peace. The Iraq war was fought for the benefit of Israel and we are on track to repeat in Iran. And all of these deadly outcomes are the result of our blind allegiance to an ally which will stop at nothing to achieve its goal of cleansing Palestine and making it a Jewish state from the Jordan to the Med, and some hegemonic street cred in that part of the world.
there is no logic in your conclusion… it’s fallacious
so much for your effort to paint all Jewish Americans as zionists…
Likudism’s PR is outta touch with American jews. Looks like they only speak on their minority’s behalf hah!
The Sarkozy Obama flap should have been a wake up call for
Netanyahu and his political lies. If these guys were caught on
tape, imagine how many other statesman must be calling this
Israeli goon a common liar.
This is the genius that represents Israel? At least with GW you
could have a beer with him even if he had the mind of a child.
This guy is plain creepy, day or night.