According to a poll by the Left wing J-Street lobby, which generally competes with the Right-leaning AIPAC, US President Barack Obama is 15% more popular among American Jews than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Obama apparently managed to maintain his popularity among 59% of American Jews, even after the harsh US criticism which followed Israel’s declaring the construction of 1,600 housing units in east Jerusalem.
Only 44% of American Jews continued to show support for Netanyahu. The prime minister had a warm reception at the AIPAC convention last week, but was later subject to a major embarrassment when he was stood up by President Obama for lunch.
The same poll revealed that 82% of Jews support the US administration’s effort to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 71% of respondents agreed that the US should maintain an active role, even if it means putting pressure on both sides at the price of a public disagreement.
On the level of importance regarding the given issue, Israel appeared in seventh place while Iran ranked at no.14, and only 2% of respondents claimed it was a topic of high importance. The issues ranked as top priority were the US economy 55%, health insurance 41%, deficit and overspending 17%, social security and Medicare 16%, terror and national security 13% and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan 10%.
Whether or not these polls mark an overall trend among the sentiments of America’s Jews, or whether or not it is relevant that 78% of American Jews do not give their children a proper Jewish education is for you to decide.
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