Despite Republican Myths, Jews Remain Solidly Behind Obama

Ariela Fleisig — July 5, 2011 – 3:02 pm | Barack Obama | Polls | Stop the Smears Comments (0) Add a comment

The notion that Jewish voters are leaving President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party is “one of those zombie memes sustained by the futile efforts of Jewish conservatives to make it a self-fulfilling prophesy,” Washington Post‘s Adam Serwer reported today.

Serwer listed just a few of the Republicans’ most recent disproven myths about Obama and Israel that have been used to further false claims that Jews are abandoning the President:

First there was the bogus story that Israeli American billionaire Haim Saban had ‘broken’ with Obama, despite having never donated to him in the first place. Saban actually stuck up for Obama against right-wing distortions of his position on Israel. Then there was the cooked up Washington Times story reporting that the Obama administration’s supposed ‘bullying’ of Israel had been revealed on a recent conference call, which people on the call claimed was false.

He cited a recent Gallup poll showing that the President’s support in the Jewish community is “rock solid”:

Gallup notes that among Jewish Democrats, the group Republicans have specifically said were beginning to part ways with Obama, support has remained rock solid, with ‘86% approving of Obama prior to the speech and 85% after.’ While Gallup notes that it’s difficult to gauge the immediate impact of the speech because their tracking poll doesn’t have a large enough sample size of Jewish voters, it nevertheless concludes that ‘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.’

Serwer concluded:

Maybe support for Obama among Jews will ultimately erode, and stories suggesting that’s the case are ahead of the curve. The evidence, however, suggests the exact opposite - Jewish voters remain firmly in the Democratic camp, and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon. But no matter - ‘Jews abandoning Democrats’ is one of those zombie memes sustained by the futile efforts of Jewish conservatives to make it a self-fulfilling prophesy, and as long as it remains a seductive storyline for political reporters and commentators, it’ll never die no matter how many times it’s shown to be false.

Click here to read Serwer’s full article.

 

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