Despite his rocky relationship with Israel and with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a survey released Tuesday finds that American Jews still favor President Barack Obama for re-election.
The survey, conducted among 1,004 American Jews by the Washington-based
Public Religion Research Institute, found that Obama has the same level
of support, 62 percent, among American Jewish voters as during a
comparable point in the 2008 race.
Three-in-ten Jewish voters
said they prefer a Republican candidate over the incumbent president. Of
those who supported Obama in 2008, an overwhelming majority say they
would like to see him re-elected, 86 percent, while seven percent of
Jewish voters who supported him in 2008 say they instead would support a
Republican candidate in 2012.
Jewish voters who supported John McCain in 2008 demonstrate similar loyalty in their voting preferences, the survey found, with 92 percent reporting that they would prefer it if a Republican candidate won the election.
The survey also found that Israel is relatively low on the list
of voting priorities for American Jewish voters. Only four percent of
respondents said that Israel was the issue that would be most important
to their vote. Instead, Jewish voters’ top priorities center around
economic issues such as the economy (51 percent), the growing gap
between the rich and the poor (15 percent), and health care and the
federal deficit (10 percent).
The survey also found that by a
margin of more than 2-to-1, American Jews say good diplomacy rather than
military strength is the best way to ensure peace (63 percent vs. 25
percent, respectively)..........................
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