J Street, the Israel lobbying organization, recently completed a large survey of American Jewish opinions. Matthew Yglesias provides this synopsis of the very, very unsurprising results:
“You’ll see that Jews massively disapprove of George W. Bush in general, and his foreign policy in particular, and his approach to the Middle East in particular particular. Jews are overwhelmingly backing Barack Obama and Democratic congressional candidates. Jews overwhelmingly favor more aggressive US diplomatic involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict, clearly believe that only a peace agreement can provide real security for Israel over the long run, and recognize the need for the United States to exert meaningful pressure on both sides to get a deal.”
Why do I say those results do little to shake the senses? To start with, we already knew that, on average, Jews don’t like Bush, and appreciate his Middle East policy even less; that they overwhelmingly support Obama, no matter what you’ve heard to the contrary; and that peace in Israel is essential for the Jewish state’s longevity. The problem is American Jews disagree on how that peace should be achieved, and at what cost.
But, more importantly, the report clearly supports the mission of J Street, which launched a few months back as an Israel lobby for doves. I’m not saying the information is biased or unreliable; it’s just not that interesting. And I apologize for sharing it with you.
Somehow, though, J Street plays this survey data as revealing “a remarkable gap between the attitudes of American Jews and the conventional wisdom about how Jews view America’s role in the Middle East.” (Phil Weiss also found the data fascinating, but had a much different read than I did: “The figures demonstrate the difficulty J Street is in.”)
Key findings from the press release are after the jump:
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