Smelling the coffee? US Dems oppose Obama on Israel
A newly released survey of 500 self-identifying Jewish Democrats shows that 52% identify with Prime Minister Netanyahu's policies on the 'settlements,' while only 37% identify with President Obama's policy. Given that some 78% of American Jewry voted for Obama, and that American Jews allegedly don't support the 'settlements' (is that a myth?), the numbers are downright amazing. A phone survey (sponsored by the Traditional Values Coalition and conducted by Global Marketing Research Services on July 22-24) of 500 American Jews who self-identified as Democrats exposes broad disagreement with Obama's Middle East policies.Read the whole thing.
Asked to choose between the Obama view that "if Israel could settle its dispute with the Palestinian refugees and give them a nation of their own, that the Arabs would live in peace with Israel" and the Israeli government view that "the Arabs will never live in peace with Israel and that giving them a nation of their own will just make them stronger," Jewish Democrats sided with the Israeli view by 52 percent to 20 percent.
On the contentious issue of construction in existing West Bank settlements, Democratic Jews also sided with Israel more than with Obama. The survey asked for agreement with Obama when he "says that it is very important that Israel not expand its settlements on the West Bank so as not to alienate the Palestinians," or with Israel that "it should be allowed to build new homes in existing settlements but not to start new ones" -- and got 52-37 backing for the Israeli view.
Democratic Jews still strongly back Obama in general, with 92 percent reporting that they approve of the job he is doing as president. But 44 percent feel that "Obama is naive in thinking he can make peace with the Arabs," while only 37 percent disagree.
Nearly half of Jewish Democrats still reject the idea that Obama is biased against Israel: In all, 49 percent said he wasn't and 16 percent said he was -- but a significantly large number, 35 percent, said they were undecided.
By 58-16, Jewish Democrats agree that "Obama is doing a good job of promoting peace in the Middle East." But they share Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's skepticism about trading land for peace, the cornerstone of the "road map" to a settlement laid out in the 1990s.
Only 27 percent feel that "President Obama is right that Israel should agree to let the Palestinians form their own country and return the West Bank to them. This would defuse the hatred in the Middle East, reduce terrorism and help America, the Palestinians, and Israel live in peace."
But 55 percent disagree, preferring the statement: "President Obama is naive in thinking that the Palestinians would make peace, whatever they say. They will just use the new land as a base to attack Israel like they did in Gaza."
I don't agree with all of American Jewry's positions in the survey, but I'm relieved to see that the majority at least seem to have a clue as to what's going on here (except when it comes to Iran).
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:21 PM
2 Comments:
Unfortunately, some realpolitik juxtaposition shows the ultimate bottom line here. From the subsequent thread ""A lose-lose situation", here's Carl's last sentence and the sadly true bottom line. "...F**k the Jews - they'll vote for us anyway."
No matter how egregiously the Obama Administration screws Israel in the next four years, no matter how badly Obama & the Democrats hurt America and Israel and hurt American-Israeli shared interests, the overwhelming majority of Jewish Americans will in a Pavlovian manner, vote Democratic in the next elections.
(This isn't to single out Jewish Americans more than any other group that the Democratic Party has managed to brainwash in the last half-century. They will all eschew critical thinking and let themselves down and let America -as well as Israel- down at the next elections. I don't see any realistic reason for hope in this regard. I hope I'm wrong and if somebody does see reasons for hope in this regard, please make a comment giving your thoughts and reasons.)
hey captain,
thanks for your vote of approval on jewish dems
sorry...we dont vote dem as a pavlovian response, but as a response as to what we see is the current republican party
dems destroying america? where have you been the past 8 years?
and what this poll proves is that jewish dem voters are not one issue voters, and believe that they can work from within the party to change attitudes
it worked with clinton...it will work with obama
it didnt work with carter, who unlike clinton and obama, is a filthy jew hater
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