‘US Jews’ approval of Obama falling steadily’

On Tuesday, October 12, an opinion poll released by the American Jewish Committee or AJC found that support for U.S. President Barack Obama has fallen to 49% approval among Jewish Americans, down from  a  March poll of 55% job approval. According to the poll, the underlying reason for the slide was that a large faction of U.S. Jews has become increasingly concerned over a number of Obama administration policies implemented in relation to the handling of the Iraq war, foreign policy towards Iran, and of course the administration’s handling of international relations with Israel. American Jewish Committee director David Harris said that he believes drop in approval is not specific to the American Jewish community and that widespread disappointments in the President’s handling of the major issues referenced above have curbed optimism for the peace talks as well as the failing U.S. economy.

Alternatively, the approval rating among U.S. Jews for the way Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is handling US-Israeli relation has actually increased to 62% approval, which is a marked 5% increase from the March poll.

In relationship to Iran, 72% of American Jews believe that there is little or no chance that a combination of diplomacy and sanctions can stop Iran from developing Nuclear weapons. A majority of those polled are concerned over the president's diplomatic strategy and would like him to implement tougher policies in the region.

Although there seems to be a great deal of doubt about the success of the Obama administration in brokering peace in the middle-east, it does not appear that Jewish voters will switch parties anytime soon. According to David Harris, the growing pessimissm and frustration with President Obama does not seem to translating in to a growing support for the Republican Party. With 92% of Jewish voters polled by the AJC, 57% percent believe in democratic controlled congress compared with 33% of Jewish voters leaning towards a Republican controlled congress.

This is a very interesting article as it discusses the political views of American Jews and their feelings about the Obama administration, and its handling of key issues concerning the Jewish community and international relations with Israel. However, it is important to note that the American Jewish Community as well as the conductor of the survey, Synovate, only realistically interviewed a fraction of the American Jewish Community and the poll is far from comprehensive. Also, this raises serious questions about the validity of the information presented in the article as well as the reliability of the poll itself.

The article was written by Gil Shefler and is fairly straight forward. However, it does lack any type of depth or perception by the author. In my opinion, the information presented in the article is drawn strictly from inferences made by pollsters, based on a survey conducted on volunteers. In the article, it states the Synovate conducted interviews of 800 respondents via telephone. Of course these respondents are voluntary and it would appear that the results are generally one-sided. That being said, it is interesting to see how Jews in the United States view President Obama. As to whether their views are heavily influenced by the actual policies implemented by his Administration or the increasing disappointment from the various failures of it, it is clear that he is not gaining any traction or support within the Jewish community.

This article from the Jerusalem Post is dated October 13, 2010 and can be found here.