The American Jewish Committee has released a survey of opinions on a wide variety of topics of interest to American Jews on Tuesday, ranging from the 2020 US presidential election, Israel-US relations, Iran and Jewish identity, revealing important findings on these issues.
Perhaps an indicator of American Jewry's priorities, which fall in-line with non-Jewish American voters, respondents were asked what the most important issue is in deciding how you will vote in the 2020 presidential election. A plurality of respondents (26%) said that the coronavirus, followed by healthcare (17%), the economy (13%), race relations (12%), crime (6%), foreign policy (5%) and other issues (20%). The respondents also overwhelmingly indicated (78%) that Joe Biden is better suited to handle the coronavirus, while 19% said Donald Trump is better. When asked which two major party candidates would be better at combatting terrorism, a majority (71%) said that Joe Biden is better fit for the job, in contrast to 26% who said Donald Trump. On the issue of Iran, 71% said the Biden would do a better job at dealing with the country, compared to 27% who said Donald Trump.
For uniting the country, likewise, vast majority (79%) said that Joe Biden would be better, followed by Donald Trump at 15%.
On Israel-US relations, the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, respondents gave mixed opinions. When asked how they would characterize US-Israel relations today, a majority of respondents said that relations are either strong (33%) or fairly strong (53%), in contrast to those who said relations are fairly weak (9%) or very weak (3%). In the case of Israel's relations with the Arab world, 37% said they were more optimistic, while 13% said they were less. A majority (49%) said that there hasn't been much change in Israel-Arab relations.
For the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, a vast majority (55%) said that there hasn't been much change in the prospects of peace, while 16% said they were more optimistic, and 28% less so.
In factoring how important Israel is to their Jewish identity, a slim majority said that the country is either very important (29%) or somewhat important (30%). On the other hand, 24% said that Israel is either not too important (24%) or not important at all (17%). On a similar question, the importance of being Jewish in their lives, 39% said it is very important, and 41% said somewhat important, while 16% said not too important and 5% not important at all.
Perhaps the closest finding, 54% of respondents said that Joe Biden would be better at strengthening US-Israel relations, compared to 42% who said Donald Trump would grow relations.
The ideological breakdown of respondents showed that 39% identify as Liberal, or 18% leans Liberal. 25% of respondents said they are Moderates, while 10% Conservative or 7% lean Conservative. In terms of party affiliation, a majority of respodents (53%) were Democrats, followed by Independents (25%) and Republicans (14%).
The same survey found that, 75% of American Jews are planning to vote for former Vice President and Democratic candidate Joe Biden, while 22% will cast their vote for incumbent Republican President Donald Trump. The rest of the respondents indicated that they will either vote for someone else, will not vote or have no opinion.
On the question of Donald Trump's approval rating, a majority of 73% expressed strong disapproval, while another 4% said they somewhat disapprove of Trump's job as president. Only 15% of respondents said that they strongly approve of Donald Trump, and another 7% are somewhat approving of his job.