R i g h t a r d i a: American Jews support Middle East peace

Friday, July 22, 2011

American Jews support Middle East peace

American Jews remain remarkably supportive of assertive American efforts to achieve Middle East peace.
The poll finds an extraordinarily strong base
of 69 percent of American Jews firmly supporting active American
engagement in bringing about Middle East peace, even if it means publicly
disagreeing with or exerting pressure on both Arabs and Israelis,
compared to 66 percent eight months ago;
69 percent also support the U.S. working with a unified Hamas-Fatah Palestinian Authority government
to achieve a peace agreement with Israel, even when informed that the
U.S. does not recognize Hamas due to its status as a terrorist organization and its refusal to
recognize Israel. Interestingly, a March poll conducted by the Truman
Institute at Hebrew University reported that 69 percent of Israelis
also think Israel should negotiate with a joint Hamas-Fatah government;
By 76-24 percent, American Jews support a two-state, final status deal between Israel and the Palestinians along the lines of the agreement nearly reached eight years ago during the Camp David and Taba talks;
On Avigdor Lieberman: When
told about Lieberman’s campaign platform requiring Arab citizens of
Israel to sign loyalty oaths, as well as his threats against Arab Members of
Knesset, American Jews opposed these positions by a 69 to 31 margin.
One in three believe their own connection to Israel will be diminished
if Lieberman assumes a senior position in the Israeli cabinet.
On Gaza:
While Jews rallied behind Israel and approved of Israel’s military
action by a 3 to 1 margin, 59 percent still felt that the military action had no
impact on Israel’s security (41 percent) or made Israel less secure (18
percent), while only 41 percent felt it made Israel more secure

The poll, released today by J Street—the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement — found that the President’s job approval rating (60 percent) remains unchanged since the organization’s last national poll in November 2010.

These findings mirror a June 2011 Gallup poll that gave the President a 60 percent job approval rating among Jews.

Gallup polls over the past two and a half years have consistently found that Jewish support for President Obama is 14 percentage points higher than that of the general population.

In head-to-head match-ups with leading Republican candidates Michelle Bachmann and Mitt Romney, Obama gets 67 percent and 63 percent of the American Jewish vote, respectively.

it doesn't take a rocket scientist to interpret these results which repudiate most of the policies of the government of Israeli PM Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu.

sources:

http://jstreet.org/blog/american-jews-continue-to-back-president-obama-us-engagement-in-israeli-palestinian-conflict/

http://jstreet.org/campaigns/j-street-releases-new-poll-american-jewish-community/