Barack Obama’s plummeting support and US Jews

Isi Leibler
Candidly Speaking from Jerusalem
21 October '10
Posted before Shabbat

For months, even years, the media have been feeding us gloomy reports about how American Jews are becoming disenchanted with Israel, alleging that indifference and even hostility were rampant.

Misnamed “pro-peace, pro- Israel” organizations like J Street claimed to have achieved dramatic inroads among young people allegedly alienated by “right-wing Israeli policies” or the “hawkish” pro-Israel lobby. This theme has been repeated so frequently that it became ingrained in the public consciousness.

The findings of two recent opinion polls conclusively demonstrate that these assertions are unfounded.

The American Jewish Committee survey just released clearly reveals that American Jews remain overwhelmingly supportive of Israel (69 percent stating that they felt close to it).

Amazingly, the majority (62%) even support the left’s bogeyman, “right-wing” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu - a 5% increase since the last poll taken in March. Support for Netanyahu would have been even higher had it not been for opposition from some hard-line Orthodox respondents who presumably felt that he was too accommodating toward US President Barack Obama.

Ironically, American Jewish approval of Netanyahu today is higher than that of Obama, whose approval rating on the issue of US-Israel relations has sunk to as low as 49% with 45% disapproving of his performance. The rapid plummet of Jewish support for Obama - 78% of whom voted for him during the elections - is indicated by his dramatic decline since the March AJC poll which then showed a 55% approval rating and 37% disapproving.

(Read full article)

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