Gallup: “Solid Majority of Jewish Americans Still Approve of Obama”

NJDC — July 5, 2011 – 11:33 am | Barack Obama | Israel | Polls Comments (0) Add a comment

Gallup released the results of a new poll this morning that found that the majority of American Jews approve of President Barack Obama’s job performance. Additionally, the poll found that American Jews remain Obama’s strongest supporters.

NJDC President and CEO David A. Harris released the following statement: 

This Gallup poll demonstrates definitively that the American Jewish community is not being fooled by the disturbing smear campaign being waged against President Obama and his outstanding pro-Israel record. Not only was Jewish approval of the President statistically unchanged during the six-week period in which his opponents engaged in an organized effort to distort Administration policies for political gain, but the +14% favor shown to him by American Jews overall has remained virtually constant since he took office in January, 2009.

When it comes to everything this President has done to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship—as with every issue—facts are our friends. And the more American Jews learn the facts, and cut through the virulent smear campaigns, the more and more they will support this President. In the meantime, enough is enough. The time has come, once and for all, for those who continue using Israel as a political wedge issue for partisan political gain—including far too many GOP presidential candidates—to cease and desist. It’s profoundly damaging to the bipartisan U.S.-Israel relationship, and apparently American Jews aren’t buying it either.

According to Gallup:

Jewish Americans gave President Barack Obama a 60% job approval rating in June, down from 68% in May, but statistically unchanged from 64% in April. Thirty-two percent of U.S. Jews now disapprove of the job Obama is doing, similar to their 30% average thus far in 2011.

Gallup’s monthly trend in Jewish approval of Obama continues to roughly follow the path of all Americans’ approval of the president, more generally, as it has since Obama took office in January 2009. The 14-percentage-point difference in the two groups’ approval ratings in June—60% among U.S. Jews vs. 46% among all U.S. adults—is identical to the average gap seen over the past two and a half years.

Gallup also found:

President Obama delivered a major speech at the State Department on May 19 in which he articulated his support for a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on a return to Israel’s 1967 borders….

Gallup cannot say whether the speech had an immediate impact on the views of Jewish Americans toward the president nationally, as sample sizes for this group in Gallup Daily tracking are too small to isolate short time periods.

However, aggregated Gallup Daily tracking interviews for the month and half periods prior to and following the speech show no significant nor sustained shift in Jewish Americans’ views toward Obama. Sixty-five percent approved of him for the April 1-May 18 time period, and 62% approved from May 19-June 30….

Gallup also finds no change in the views of the more than 300 Jewish Democrats interviewed in each period, with 86% approving of Obama prior to the speech and 85% after.

Gallup concluded as the poll’s “Bottom Line”:

The absence of a significant retreat in Jewish Americans’ approval of Obama since his Mideast policy speech contrasts with a recent commentary by Ben Smith for Politico, titled “Obama May Be Losing the Faith of Jewish Democrats,” in which he suggests a “tipping point” may have been reached with Jews who have long harbored concerns about the president’s support of Israel. That conclusion, based on Smith’s conversations with “center-left American Jews and Obama supporters—and many of them Democratic donors” may apply to certain politically active members of the Jewish-American community, but according to recent Gallup trends, is not reflective of the views of Jewish Americans more generally.

Click here to read Gallup’s full analysis and to view charts.

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