WASHINGTON, DC: A new J Street poll finds that large majorities of American Jews support US President Barack Obama s active engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even if that means exerting pressure and publicly disagreeing with Israel. American Jews would also like the United States to deal with a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas in pursuit of a peace agreement, a position at odds with current US and Israeli policy shunning Hamas. The poll, commissioned by the dovish pro-Israel lobby and released Monday, also reports that American Jews are evenly split between those who support a US military attack on Iran if it is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons and those who oppose a military attack in those circumstances. The finding mirrors a similar result in an American Jewish Committee poll last year. Relating to the recent elections in Israel, the survey also asked about Avigdor Lieberman, who is likely to become Israel s next foreign minister. With 62 percent name recognition, the poll found that Lieberman has only a 27 percent favorability rating in comparison to 74 percent for Obama, 58 percent for incoming Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and 53 percent for current Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. They also found that 69 percent disagreed with Lieberman s views in which he has previously called for the execution of Arab members of Israel s parliament who met with Hamas and whose main campaign message called for Arab citizens of Israel to sign a loyalty oath to the Jewish state in order to prevent their citizenship from being revoked . Additionally, 32 percent said him becoming a senior minister in the government weakens my personal connection to Israel because Lieberman s positions go against my core values while 58 percent said it would not affect their feelings towards Israel and 10 percent said it would strengthen them. The poll was conducted among 800 adult American Jews between 28 February and 9 March, using e-mail invitations to a web-based pool of respondees, with a +/-3.5 percent margin of error. The survey reflected the demographics of the Jewish community, with approximately eight percent of participants being Orthodox Jews, according to the pollsters. Leaders of other Jewish organisations, however, questioned some of the findings and questions concerning Lieberman. One pointed out that his position on the loyalty oath - which would have been required of all Israelis and not just Arabs - had virtually no chance of becoming part of a Netanyahu's government policy. Another argued that the question was misleading, reciting his negative policies rather than emphasizing his support for civil marriage and a two-state solution, positions many American Jews welcome. If they asked the question a different way they d get a different answer, the official charged. J Street has a set of agendas. and they re trying to show the American Jewish community is unified behind their objectives, so they conducted a push poll showing American Jews are against Lieberman. Jim Gerstein, the Washington-based pollster who conducted the survey, defended the questions about Lieberman. He explained, We asked the question based on what he is known for here [in America] and what defines him here. If we were going to ask a question about Netanyahu, we wouldn t ask about his position on the environment. The poll found that American Jews approved of the United States playing an active role in the peace process by a margin of 84 to 16. Those numbers changed only slightly, to 81-19, if the active engagement included pressuring Israelis and Palestinians, and down to 66-34 if it meant the United States would publicly criticise both sides. Additionally, 69 percent of American Jews supported the United States working with a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas to achieve a peace agreement with Israel as opposed to 31 percent opposed to such outreach. Israel has strongly opposed contacts with Hamas, and so far the Obama administration has continued a policy of not engaging with the militant Islamic group. Hilary Leila Krieger is a Washington correspondent for the Jerusalem Post. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).
