Israel is lowest policy priority for Jewish American voters, poll finds

A new survey has found that Israel is the lowest policy priority for Jewish American voters.

According to a poll commissioned by the Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI), “a candidate’s stance on Israel ranks at the bottom of a list of 16 policy priorities of Jewish voters”.

Designed to understand what drives Jewish voters’ “engagement in politics in advance of the 2020 elections”, the poll revealed that “domestic issues dominate the policy priorities of the Jewish community as they determine which candidate to support…as opposed to issues related to Israel.”

While – unsurprisingly – the survey indicated that “the Jewish community continues to identify as strongly pro-Israel”, more than half (53 per cent) of those polled “are critical of at least some of the current Israeli government’s policies”.

READ: In open letter, Jewish Americans come out in support of Ilhan Omar

According to JEI, “the results also demonstrate that the Jewish American electorate remains overwhelmingly opposed to President Trump, motivated largely by the Jewish community’s positions on domestic policy issues.”

“These include immigration and health care, as well as concerns about rising anti-Semitism, gun violence, and rise of white nationalism, which respondents partially attribute to President Trump.”

Two-thirds of the Jewish electorate remains “firmly aligned with the Democratic Party”, with 25 per cent of Jewish voters identifying as Republicans.

Overall, “71 per cent disapprove of President Trumps’ overall job performance, 70 per cent view him unfavourably, 67 per cent would vote for a generic Democrat over President Trump, and 65 per cent would vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden over President Trump.”