In my previous article, “Why Israelis See the U.S. Election So Differently,” I mentioned two things:
One – most Israelis support Trump over Biden.
Two – there is especially strong support for Trump among Orthodox Jews.
When writing about these two points, I relied on previous polling. Not that I had any doubt, but it is good to have fresh polling to update the support for Trump in Israel and emphasize my second point. This is what I wrote it yesterday:
A strange and fascinating alliance between him [Trump] and the Orthodox world deepened the internal rift between liberal Jews — who think he is Pharaoh — and Orthodox Jews — who see him as Cyrus. Across Israel and America, in Orthodox synagogues, a prayer for the success of Trump was heard last Shabbat. The Frum are rooting for the playboy. If politics is known to make strange bedfellows, here is proof number one.
Here is proof number two, courtesy of pollster Menachem Lazar, who polled Israelis on Trump versus Biden the day before the election. I hope you can easily understand what you see here. Among secular Israelis, which comprise close to half the public, there is strong support for Trump, with about third who support Biden. But the more traditional Israelis are, the more they support Trump, with the culmination of this trend among the ultra-Orthodox, where Trump gets all the support, and Biden gets none.
How does one explain such a whopping outcome? I believe that Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews get their cue on whom to support from two main sources. One: right-wing Israelis, who believe that Trump is good for Israel. Most Haredi Jews in Israel are very right-wing. Two: ultra-Orthodox Jews in America, who have a belief that Trump is good for the Jews.
To understand why right-wing Israelis (that is, most Israelis) support Trump, read my previous post. To understand why Haredi Jews in America support Trump, consider this interesting explanation by my wise collogue at JPPI, Dr. Shlomo Fischer, who offered this:
“Trump rallies and support (like Likud rallies) are enactments of gemeinschaft (primal community). That is a primary aspect of Trump’s attraction (how Donald Trump the man became the symbol of American small town gemeinschaft is, of course, a mystery and part of his brilliant marketing ability). Non-Jewish gemeinschaft scares liberal Jews because it implies their exclusion. Orthodox and Haredi Jews are less oriented towards integration into the general society; hence, they are less bothered by possible exclusion. Furthermore, they understand Trump’s messages as strengthening their own intra-Jewish gemeinschaft in the same fashion that they strengthen the non-Jewish American (small-town Republican) gemeinschaft. Thus, part of the polarization in the Jewish community has to do with differing attitudes towards gemeinschaft and gesselschaft. Liberal Jews, like most liberals, favor gesselschaft (large, impersonal society).”
Did I say fascinating? It definitely is. And as a bonus, here is the Israeli vote on Trump versus Biden by political affiliation.
