I just came from the Jewish Caucus here at Netroots Nation, where we had a representative from pro-peace pro-Israel organization J Street speak to us. J Street recently commissioned a poll from Gerstein Agne concerning American Jewish political attitudes. The findings are sure to disappoint those who want to make Jews into single-issue voters who follow a hard line when it comes to Israel.
The first question:
Q.6 Generally speaking, do you think that things in this country are going in the right direction, or do you feel things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track?
Right direction 10
Wrong track 90
No surprise there. It's the next question where things get interesting:
Q.7 Below is a list of issues facing our country today. Please mark which TWO of these issues are the most important for you in deciding your vote for President and Congress this November.
The economy 55
War in Iraq 33
Health care 21
Terrorism and national security 21
Energy 15
The environment 12
Israel 8
Illegal immigration 8
Social Security and Medicare 7
Taxes 6
Separation between religion and state 6
Education 5
Abortion 2
Only 8% of American Jews define Israel as one of their top 2 issues in this election. What are the biggest ones? The economy and the war in Iraq. Gee, just like everyone else! American Jews obviously care about Israel, but it's not a single-issue situation to most people (and oddly enough, Orthodox respondants made up 8% of the survey as well. You have to figure that it's fairly correlative).
Moving on, we see that 83% of American Jews disapprove of Dubya's job as President, 79% disapprove of his handling of the war in Iraq, and 71% disapprove of his handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
When asked to rank their feelings on certain politicians or organizations (with 0 being the lowest and 100 being the highest), Obama had a mean score of 57.8, compared with 39.5 for McCain and 24.8 for Bush. Joe Lieberman gets only a slightly higher score than McCain at 41.7. The Democratic Party has a score of 55.3, compared to 29.4 for the Republican Party. AIPAC has a relatively high score at 56.0, while Christian Zionists get 31.5 (however, that number falls to 22.2 when the question is rephrased as "Right-wing" Christian Zionists).
As far as the breakdown between the candidates goes,
Q.26 It is a long way off, but thinking about the election for president in November, if the election were held today, for whom would you vote -- Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain?
Barack Obama 58
Lean Barack Obama 4
John McCain 29
Lean John McCain 3
Other candidate 4
Lean Other candidate 2
Undecided/Refused 0
Total Barack Obama 62
Total John McCain 32
Total Other candidate 6
These numbers are actually very consistent with previous polling done on the subject, indicating that at the very least, the Republican attempts to smear Obama aren't working any better now than they worked in April. McCain hasn't made any inroads with Jewish voters beyond the ones who always vote Republican, plus some old folks in Boca Raton and West Palm.
One last very important group of questions, on the subject of Israel.
The vast majority of American Jews want to see a real, peaceful solution to the problem, and want an American president who will put pressure on BOTH sides to compromise. It seems to me that one of the best ways that Obama could shore up Jewish support is to continue what he's doing now, to continue tying McCain to Bush. I'm eager to see what happens next week when he visits Israel.
Q.29 Now, something different. Do you support or oppose the United States playing an active role in helping the parties to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict?
Strongly support 48
Somewhat support 40
Somewhat oppose 7
Strongly oppose 5
Total Support 87
Total Oppose 13
Q.30 (IF SUPPORT ACTIVE ROLE) Would you support or oppose the United States playing an active role in helping the parties to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict if it meant the United States publicly stating its disagreements with both the Israelis and the Arabs?
Strongly support 41
Somewhat support 45
Somewhat oppose 11
Strongly oppose 3
Total Support 86
Total Oppose 14
Q.31 (IF SUPPORT ACTIVE ROLE) Would you support or oppose the United States playing an active role in helping the parties to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict if it meant the United States exerting pressure on both the Israelis and Arabs to make the compromises necessary to achieve peace?
Strongly support 39
Somewhat support 41
Somewhat oppose 13
Strongly oppose 6
Total Support 81
Total Oppose 19
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