Republicans Jews say 30% voted for Trump, J-Street says only 21%
It's not only the candidates who are disputing the election results.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFIsraeli settlers blow the shofar as the pray for a Trump win outside the Cave of Patriarchs, Hebron. November 2, 2020(photo credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)
Right wing Jews slammed J-Street Wednesday for claiming US President Donald Trump was falling, as their numbers indicated it was rising. Republican Jewish Coalition data showed that 30% of US Jews voted for Trump, the organization said, explaining that no Republican Presidential candidate had ever received so much support. US Jews traditionally vote for the Democratic candidate and both groups agreed that this pattern held with respect to this year’s Democratic Presidential Contender Joe Biden. The argument was over the extent of the support and whether Jewish support for the Republican Party had increased.According to J-Street, citing a poll it commissioned, some 77% of Jewish Americans who voted supported Biden compared to 21% who cast their vote for Trump. This is the worst presidential election performance by Republicans among the Jewish community since 2008, according to J Street.The Republican Coalition said that Jewish voters “are moving Republican,” adding that “this is something that we have long worked for.” It speculated that perhaps J-Street had not done enough polling among religious Jews and therefore received a different result.J-Street data showed that their breakout for presidential data was consistent with the congressional races, with American Jews supported Democratic candidates by a similar margin – 78% to 21%.The Republican Jewish Coalition said its data showed Jewish gratitude to Trump who has been the best friend to Jews who had ever served in the White House.J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami said, “In this historically pivotal election, Jewish voters have just totally repudiated Donald Trump and a Republican Party that has catered to the most far Right, xenophobic elements of the country.” “While Trump touted an ‘exodus’ of Jews from the Democratic Party, the only exodus we saw here was Republicans losing a significant chunk of their already small number of Jewish supporters,” he said.“A strategy built on the myth that Jewish votes can be won with hawkish Israel policy is bound to fail, when over and over again American Jews have demonstrated that they are among the most progressive voters in the American electorate, with views on Israel that are pro-diplomacy and pro-peace,” Ben-Ami said.
Some 49% of poll respondents identified themselves as “strong Democrats,” while only 11% identified themselves as “strong Republicans.”The poll found that American Jews voted primarily on the issues of the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, healthcare and the economy, with only 5% listing Israel as their most or second-most important issue. This is almost double the 9% that listed Israel as one of their top two priorities in 2016.The poll also found that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen highly unfavorably among American Jews. His favorability is rated at -30, a steep fall from +30 in 2014 and +12 in 2016.Three-quarters (74%) of Jewish voters support rejoining the Iran nuclear agreement, as do 75% who believe that the US should pressure Israelis and Palestinians to make peace.“Jewish voters continue to overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates, even-handed US engagement in efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a two-state solution and a return to Obama-era policies such as the Iran nuclear agreement,” said pollster Jim Gerstein.J Street is a pro-Israel, pro-peace advocacy group. The survey has a confidence level of 95% and a +/- 3.5 percentage point margin of error.
