The Jewish Electorate Institute, a voter initiative of Jewish Democrats, released a poll of views on Israel. It is a remarkable poll both for its results and for the questions it asked. Previous polls by J Street, American Jewish Committee and Pew have offered useful information on changing attitudes, but neglected to ask questions they preferred not to deal with–like levels of support for one-state vs. two-state; or attitudes toward BDS. For these groups, they are third-rail issues they’d rather not address. But this poll delved into a number of these contentious issues and offered some surprising results.
To start from the beginning: the poll asked about denominational affiliation and, as expected, a plurality (37%) identified as Reform. However, the second largest category was None, indicating that a significant number of Jews have no specific religious affiliation. 65% of poll respondents belong to no synagogue or temple. Meaning that Jewish institutions and organizations are missing a key element of the Jewish population.
Another question asked which two issues should be the highest priority for Congressional action. The highest priorities were climate change, voting rights, jobs and COVID. Israel was ranked 13th of 16 priorities. Iran followed at 14. This result is not new. Yet centrist Democrats and Republicans keep harping on the issue, attempting to pander to what they believe to be Jewish voter concerns. This should drive a stake through the issue and remind people like Rep. Gregory Meeks and Brad Schneider, who routinely lead a chorus of attacks against progressive figures like Rep. Ilhan Omar, that they’re barking up the wrong tree. Jews want what every other Democratic voter wants. Their interests are not parochial and not Israel-focussed. Remember that, the next time 13 Jewish Democrats in the House denounce Ilhan Omar or deny her a seat on a House Foreign Affairs junket to Israel (as Meeks and Schneider just did).
When asked how emotionally-attached the respondent was to Israel, an expected majority said they were. But a significant minority of 38% said they were either unattached or somewhat unattached. This indicates a strong sense of alienation among this group which I expect to increase the worse conditions get in Israel-Palestine (and they will get worse).
While a majority supported financial aid to Israel, nearly a quarter did not. Further, nearly 60% supported an approach advocated by Sen. Bernie Sanders and progressive Democrats, restricting aid from being used to “expand settlements.” Though this a fairly milquetoast provision, it’s a steppingstone to stronger action in future. And Democrats should take notice of such support in their foreign policy deliberations.
One of the most important questions in the survey related to support for two-states vs one-state. The majority support two states as expected. And while the 20% who support one state may seem small, it is by no means insignificant. As Israel continues its rejection of two-states and the approach continues to fail generally, I expect this number to grow.
Though Israel Lobby groups generally waxed enthusiastic with the new Israeli government, believing with little or no evidence that it will mark a more moderate approach than the Netanyahu government which preceded it, American Jews responded with a ho-hum attitude. Those who said the new coalition will make no difference in relations with the US (30%) were equal to those who said it would strengthen relations. Apparently, rank and file Jews are more realistic in their appraisal than those who claim to lead them.
Though the vast majority of respondents were concerned with anti-Semitism, 61% said the most dangerous threat came from right-wing groups rather than left-wing. In other words, those moderate pro-Israel Democrats who are trolling progressives like Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib are barking up the wrong tree. Jews don’t see them as a threat. Only those who need to find enemies on the progressive left are doing that and they’re wasting their time. The issue doesn’t resonate with most American Jews.
One of the more surprising results in the survey was the number of Jews who believe that Israeli is an apartheid state (25%), committing genocide against Palestinians (22%, and 33% among Jews under 40 years old), and treating Palestinians with same racism as in the US (34%). Though these remain minority views, my impression is that they have gone from being marginal views to ones gaining support over time. Reports like that of B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch which declare Israel to be an apartheid state “from the river to the sea” will have an increasing impact on Jewish opinion.
A further example of the increasing alienation of American Jews from Israel is the recent DC “No Fear” rally which sought to amplify the dubious claim that May’s Israeli attack on Gaza brought out anti-Semitic demons in America. The rally, sponsored by major Jewish groups like the ADL, AJC and Jewish federations drew a measly 2,000 people. A JDL vice-president essentially confesses to this increasing alienation, though she continues to deny the validity of terms like apartheid and genocide relating to Israel:
“What we’re missing, even the centrist organizations, is that for years now we’ve been hearing these sensationalist labels, and the reason we didn’t engage with it was because it was on the fringe, it was taboo, and we thought it would stay there,” Nazarian said. “What has happened now as a result of the May conflict is the real mainstreaming of this language.”
The survey did lack two key questions which have been hotly debated in Congress: attitudes toward BDS and the IHRA “definition” of anti-Semitism. Hopefully, the next poll will include such important issues.
It’s critical to note that among younger Jews in the poll sample, views were universally more negative toward Israeli policy toward the Palestinians. This does not bode well for future US-Israel relations and explains why right-wing Israeli leaders have turned their back on the liberal views of the Jewish community in favor of Christian evangelicals and white supremacist governments like Hungary and Poland. Despite the fact that many of them hold anti-Semitic views, they evince strong support for Israel.
Is there a distinction in the survey between American Jews and Israeli Jews?
@ ahallel: These are all US Jewish voters. It does not include Israeli Jews.
“May’s Israeli attack on Gaza”
Actually, Hamas began shooting rockets at Jerusalem first, and Israel attacked Gaza in response.
With falsehoods like this being fed to American Jews, it’s now wonder they think negatively of Israel.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/10/hamas-fires-rockets-into-israel-in-dispute-over-jerusalem-mosque
@Hilla
Unless you provide a more accurate chronology of the beginnings of the May war, we will have to rely on the Guardian, which reported that minutes after a Hamas ultimatum expired, Hamas began rocketing Israel.
Israeli Border Police have been securing the Temple Mount for many years , and though the Border Police sometimes scuffle with Palestinian demonstrators on there, that is not a casus belli.
Was I ‘actually’ there? Yes.
Were you there?
Hilla. I sense that you and I are world’s apart and no amount of dialogue is going to bring us any closer.
All the best.
@ Jack: Nonsense. The chronology of the war is clear to all but pro Israel apologists like you. The Guardian report proves nothing of what you claim. Hamas gave Israel an ultimatum to stop defiling al Aqsa. Israel ignored it. Hamas began firing rockets because it was defending Palestinians and the holy places against Israeli attack.
The Border Police are not “securing” Haram al Sharif. And they do not “scuffle.” They ravage al-Aqsa, beating worshippers. If a Palestinian police force did this at the Kotel the world would be screaming bloody murder. The thugs have one purpose and one purpose only–to maintain Judeo-supremacy over the Muslim holy places and remind Muslims who’s boss there. They do this with pure thuggery of the sort you thoroughly approve. Your defense of this is sickening and morally depraved.
Judeo-supremacist ‘thugs’ once again ‘defile’ the Haram al Sharif holy place.
Why? Because rock throwing Palestinian worshipers don’t want any Jews to visit the site on Tisha B’Av.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rkzknvbcd
Muslim clerics have, for days now, been calling Muslims in Jerusalem to go to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to block Jews from entering on Sunday.
I dont even know why bother responding. clearly you’re a propagandist.
there is something called status quo no? or is it a concept you only use when its comfortable?
those worshipping jews that you’re talking about? thats instigation. muslim response is but predictable. learn who’s the provokator and who’s the provoked.
@ Jack Hoffman: Actually, Muslim worshippers don’t want Judeo settlers to destroy Haram al Sharif and replace it with a Third Temple. These faux Jews have announced their intent to do just that. So yeah, Muslims don’t Want their holy shrine destroyed. Don’t blame them in the least.
Actually, real Jews are prohibited from entering the Haram al Sharif. Only Judean idolators have defied this centuries old halachic ruling.
My post is about the resort to violence, and the measured police response to it.
Note that Muslim worshippers on the Temple Mount were throwing stones at Border Police, before any Jews arrived there on Tisha B’Av.
Did ‘defilement’ occur? Who ‘defiled’, and when did ‘defilement occur’?
I visited the Temple Mount in April (along with some Filapinas and one or two orthodox Jews) although I confined myself to the Southern and Northern sections and avoided the Dome of the Rock and it’s immediate environs.
Halachka allows for visits to parts of the Temple Mount, which you recall from your travels, is a very large precinct.
https://schechter.edu/is-it-permissible-for-jews-to-enter-the-temple-mount-in-our-day-in-honor-of-jerusalem-on-the-40th-anniversary-of-reunification/
Gosh. Even the Rambam visited the Temple Mount and prayed there!
On Tuesday, the 4th of Heshvan 4926 (19 October 1165), he [Rambam] finally left Acre in order to ascend to Jerusalem. This, as he well, knew was a very dangerous journey. But he succeeded in entering the city and two days later, on Thursday, he prayed at a place that he described in a letter as “the Great and Holy House” (letter cited by R. Elazar Ezkari. Sefer Haredim (Mitzvah 83).
@ Jack Hoffman: Nonsense! “Measured response?” Tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades in the third holiest shrine in Islam? What are you smoking? This is defiling a holy site, not a measured response. It is pure thuggery and state violence.
As for stones, be happy they don’t have AK-47s and M-16s or helicopter gunships to defend the site. Would an Israeli Jew do any different if Palestinian troops rampage through the Kotel? Of course they wouldn’t. They’d use every means at their disposal to defend what they view as a holy site.
Your visit was a violation of a millennium of halacha saying that ALL of the Mount is forbidden. There are no exceptions made. The ones you have carved out for yourself are not accepted by halacha. And no it doesn’t permit visiting specific parts of it. The entire entire is Haram.
Your source is part of the Judeo-triumphalist movement seeking to rebuild the 3rd temple.
It is not a normative halachic ruling. In fact, a friend who is a leading Conservative rabbi over many decades wrote this about the responsum after I sent it to him:
Further, it permits this desecration in honor not of a religious observance, but of a political-military victory by Israel in which it conquered foreign territory in violation of international law.
Palestinian rioters, egged on for days by clerics, pelted Border Police with rocks BEFORE Jews had arrived on Tisha B’Av.
How do expect the police to respond? They must restore order so that visitors can tour the site safely.
We are worlds apart on this and many issues, but can we agree that the Palestinians started the Temple Mount violence on Tisha B’Av?
Schechter Institute is a Judeo-triumphalist movement seeking to rebuild the 3rd temple?
Where do they say that? I searched but couldn’t find those teachings.
Dr. Tomer Persico, who teaches at Schecter Institute doesn’t support rebuilding the Temple, in fact, Persico says that rebuilding the Temple would be the end of Judaism.
https://www.haaretz.com/.premium-beware-the-end-is-near-1.5328448
@ Jack: That was your last comment in this thread.
The Border Police are thugs. They have murdered and maimed hundreds of Palestinian civilians. They do not “restore order.” They incite disorder. They do not belong on Haram al Sharif. The only visitors who cannot visit the site safely are your pals, the settler priesthood. And for good reason. Border Police are not needed there and their very presence is a provocation. If there were Palestinian police deployed at the Kotel what would be the Israeli response? You know what it would be.
The Schechter Institute is affiliated with the Conservative movement in Israel and produces its rabbis. But Golinkin’s posek has no validity whatsoever in the Conservative movement nor in Israel, as my senior Conservative rabbi friend noted. There are other groups that are blatantly in favor of rebuilding the Temple and restoring the High Priesthood.
@ Jack: As Hilla noted, Hamas’ rockets did not spontaneously launch themselves against Israel. THere was a reason. Israel BOrder Police thugs defiled Haram al SHarif with rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades. Judeo-settlers were routinely beating up Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Hamas launched those rockets in response to Bibi’s planned provocation.
It is YOU who is propagating falsehoods of Israeli innocence and victimization.
Richard: I definitely abhor “Israel Border Police thugs defiling Al Aqsa”, or what Judeo-settlers are routinely doing. However that does not give anyone the right to Indiscriminately launch rockets again civilian population. I my mind this is what, as some do-gooders would say, a disproportional reaction.
I have probably exceeded my share of disagreeing with the blog’s host, and am about to receive the ultimate penalty of being banned on this thread; thus Ave Imperator, Morituri te Salutant!
@ Eli Gal: Israel assassinates Iranian nuclear scientists, Palestinian leaders and invades Gaza murdering thousands of civilians & you want to quarrel about Hamas rockets?? Really? If a Hamas rocket landed on the Kirya would you say a massive attack on Gaza would be a “disproportionate reaction?” I didn’t think so. So stop being a hypocrite.
Apartheid? Probably; geocidal?? How exactly?
(A non-US Jew)
@ Eli Gal: It’s not my job to give you elementary lessons on Israeli apartheid. You can read the B’Tselem and HRW reports. Or not. I certainly can’t penetrate your moral obtuseness.
Richard: Please read my post again more carefully. I asked for elementary lessons about geocide, not apartheid!
Eli Gal: The UN definition of genocide is freely available. Look it up and apply the events of Israel’s serial attacks over many decades on Palestine and Palestinians (not to mention Lebanese). Then read up on the ICC and what constitutes crimes against humanity, which it’s going to investigate in the Israel-Palestine context.
Neither organization has claimed that Israel is committing genocide.
@ Rex:
And where did I say they did? B’Tselem and HRW have said Israel is an ‘apartheid state’ from the river to the sea. I never claimed they said Israel was committing genocide. But many analysts, activists and journalists have. And 22% of American Jewish voters agree. The more Palestinian dead are piled high on the altar of Palestine, the more apt the genocide claims become.