J Street Releases New Poll of American Jewish Community

March 23, 2009

A new J Street poll shows strong continued support among American Jews for assertive American diplomacy in ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as in the Middle East in general.

The results, which you can read in full below, demonstrate an understanding that difficult compromises will have to be made by both sides in order to bring true peace and security to Israel, the Palestinians, and the entire region.

Here are more interesting tidbits from the poll release.

  • 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.