Only 6% of American Jewish community would vote for president because of Israel despite differences on other issues
Times of Israel
US President Donald Trump’s policies toward Israel are not generating support for him among American Jews, a poll released Wednesday found.
While a slim majority of American Jews said they approved of Trump’s handling of relations with the Jewish state, the vast majority said that would not cause them to vote for him.
The survey, by The Mellman Group, found that 51 percent of American Jewish respondents said they approved of the president’s US-Israel approach, but just 6% said they would vote for him due to his Israel policies despite differing from him on other issues. Moreover, 20% said they agreed with Trump on Israel, but would still would not vote for him.
The Mellman Group is a Democratic polling service. The report surveyed 800 voters nationally who it said reflected the 2018 Jewish electorate. The interviews, which were conducted online, ran from October 2 to October 11. The survey’s margin of error is 3.5% and it has a 95% level of confidence. It was conducted on behalf of the Jewish Electorate Institute
The poll also found that American Jews — long loyal to the Democratic Party — remained that way, with 75% of respondents saying they planned to vote for Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterms. Sixty-eight percent said they identified with the Democratic Party, whereas 25% said they did with the Republican Party.
Those figures reflect a wide divergence from national trends. A recent Gallup poll found that 47% of Americans identify as Democrats and 44% identify as Republicans.
The Mellman poll also found widespread American Jewish distaste for Trump, with 75% expressing disapproval of him.
That reflected slightly less disapproval of the president than past polling. The American Jewish Committee’s 2017 survey of Jewish opinion, which was released in September of that year, found that 77% of American Jews had an unfavorable view of the president.
Trump has made several decisions in the past year that delighted Israelis but divided the American Jewish community, including recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the embassy there, as well as withdrawing the US from the Iran nuclear deal.
One thought on “New poll: Trump’s Israel policies don’t sway most US Jews”
I’m not sure that I buy this Mellman Group Democratic polling service survey.
Anecdotally, I live in the “Empire State” and there are plenty of Yews in my area. One such person expressed his dissatisfaction with the Dems as having gone off the cliff, so to speak, and this person stated he’d be voting Republican in the midterm elections. Now, I realize that isn’t necessarily a vote for Trump, since this poll purportedly asked about Yewish satisfaction with Trump specifically and the likelihood those taking the poll would vote for Trump in the future. Of course, a lot can change in the next two years to change those Mellman Group polling numbers drastically in either direction.
I think however, there may be a couple of unspoken fears which the poll doesn’t indicate, and for obvious reasons, probably didn’t ask or didn’t include in the findings. First, since only Yewish Democrats were polled, were any questions asked about the Democrat party shifting to the anarchic left since the time Trump announced his candidacy, and whether that shift left is approved or disapproved by those polled? Second, were any questions asked about the fears of Yews living in an anarchic situation wherein their physical safety might be threatened because of their Yewishness, as in the “we’ve seen this before” line they often use? Third, were those polled asked if their answers might be different if a non-sectarian organization were asking the questions? And fourth, were those polled asked if they were consciously lying? (haha).
I’m not sure that I buy this Mellman Group Democratic polling service survey.
Anecdotally, I live in the “Empire State” and there are plenty of Yews in my area. One such person expressed his dissatisfaction with the Dems as having gone off the cliff, so to speak, and this person stated he’d be voting Republican in the midterm elections. Now, I realize that isn’t necessarily a vote for Trump, since this poll purportedly asked about Yewish satisfaction with Trump specifically and the likelihood those taking the poll would vote for Trump in the future. Of course, a lot can change in the next two years to change those Mellman Group polling numbers drastically in either direction.
I think however, there may be a couple of unspoken fears which the poll doesn’t indicate, and for obvious reasons, probably didn’t ask or didn’t include in the findings. First, since only Yewish Democrats were polled, were any questions asked about the Democrat party shifting to the anarchic left since the time Trump announced his candidacy, and whether that shift left is approved or disapproved by those polled? Second, were any questions asked about the fears of Yews living in an anarchic situation wherein their physical safety might be threatened because of their Yewishness, as in the “we’ve seen this before” line they often use? Third, were those polled asked if their answers might be different if a non-sectarian organization were asking the questions? And fourth, were those polled asked if they were consciously lying? (haha).