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Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matthew Brooks commented today on a post-election poll done by McLaughlin & Associates in New Jersey on November 3 and 4, 2009: "Recently released post-election poll results from New Jersey show that Republican Chris Christie won 38% of the Jewish vote this year in his run for governor. We are pleased by Christie's strong showing in the Jewish community in a very close race. [Click here to download a memo of the poll results.] "The Jewish community was a key battleground in this election, with both Republicans and the Democrats actively campaigning for Jewish support....

The Obama administration appears to be welcoming the efforts of the left-leaning Jewish lobby in Washington, J Street. While Israel's ambassador to the U.S. will probably not be attending the group's October 25 conference, senior U.S. administration officials who have confirmed their participation include James Jones, national security adviser in the Obama administration. J Street was set up more than two years ago to offer an antidote to the large and powerful America Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC enjoys substantial support in both the Democratic and Republican parties and is identified with a more "rightist" line on the peace process....

Sixty-four percent of American Jews approve of the job President Obama is doing, significantly higher than both the national average and the ratings the president received from the other religious groups surveyed, according to a new Gallup poll. President Barack Obama Gallup also found that while Obama’s job approval rating among Jews is down from 83 percent at the beginning of the year, he experienced the same percent drop among the general population. According to an analysis from the polling company, the equal rates of decline indicate that Obama’s policies on Israel and the Middle East have not had a...

Among America’s four largest faith groups, Jews are most likely to approve of the job that Barack Obama is doing as president, according to the results of a new Gallup poll analysis. For the month of September, 64 percent of U.S. Jews tracked by Gallup Daily expressed their approval of Obama – 10 points higher than the next highest group, Catholics. Only 47 percent of Protestant Christians, meanwhile, said they approved of the job that Obama is doing and 32 percent of Mormons said the same. Among atheists, agnostics, and those without a religion, 65 percent gave their approval. “President...

A new American Jewish Committee (AJC) survey of American Jews shows that for the first time, a majority of them would support a U.S military strike against Iran, and an even larger majority would support such a move by Israel...

A majority of American Jews support military action against Iran to prevent the Teheran regime from obtaining nuclear weapons, a new study claims. Asked if they would support American military action, 56% of American Jews said they would, while just 36% opposed it, according to the American Jewish Committee's 2009 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion. An even greater number support Israeli military action against the Iranian nuclear program, with 66% in favor and just 28% against. The survey, which polled 800 representative American Jews and was conducted by Synovate between August 30 and September 17, also dealt with US-Israeli...

In recent years, political polling has recorded undeniable gains for the pro-life movement. What used to be a 2 to 1 advantage for the term “pro-choice” over “pro-life,” has now shrunk to basically 50-50. But even in the early years of polling on the abortion, when intensity as a voting issue was gauged, the pro-life side generally enjoyed a 3-5 to 1 edge. The exceptions to this rule have always been A: major cities and college towns which tend to have more young and single people, and B: areas with large Jewish populations. In 20 years of working with candidates,...

A study in contrasts: President Obama's Rosh Hashana message compared to message for EID-UL-FITR and Ramadan #1 ROSH HASHANAH THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release September 17, 2009 www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Videotaped-Remarks-by-the-President-on-the-occasion-of-Rosh-Hashanah/ Below is a transcript of the President's videotaped remarks on the occasion of Rosh Hashanah. To watch the video or read translations of this message, please visit: www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Warm-Wishes-for-Rosh-Hashanah/. REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE OCCASION OF ROSH HASHANAH As members of the Jewish faith here in America and around the world gather to celebrate the High Holidays, I want to extend my warmest wishes for...

As a political junkie, one the most baffling aspects of national elections is the Jewish vote. American Jews vote overwhelmingly for Democrat candidates in national elections. 2008 was no exception, as reported in an editorial at HAARETZ.com immediately following the election: Despite the tense rift between Republican and Democratic Jews over the course of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, exit polls on Tuesday showed that Barack Obama received about 77 percent of the Jewish vote. These numbers were higher even than the 2004 election, when Democratic candidate John Kerry received 74 percent of the Jewish vote. Al Gore received the...

I'm hoping buyer's remorse on Obama will finally cause a Jewish shift to the right. One of the most extraordinary features of Barack Obama's victory over John McCain was his capture of 78% of the Jewish vote. To be sure, there was nothing extraordinary about the number itself. Since 1928, the average Jewish vote for the Democrat in presidential elections has been an amazing 75%—far higher than that of any other ethno-religious group. Yet there were reasons to think that it would be different in 2008. The main one was Israel. Despite some slippage in concern for Israel among American...

Podhoretz asks: Why are Jews liberals? Buzz up!17 votes Send Email IM .Share Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Twitter Yahoo! Bookmarks .Print .. AP – FILE - In this June 23, 2004 file photo, Norman Podhoretz is shown after receiving the Presidential Medal … .By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer Hillel Italie, Ap National Writer – Wed Sep 2, 7:02 am ET NEW YORK – Norman Podhoretz, the neo-conservative and former Commentary editor, is a stocky, confident man whose book-filled Upper East Side apartment features a bronzed wall image of Teddy Roosevelt with a bold-faced statement from...

The numbers are getting smaller by the day. Here is a report from the Jerusalem Post: The number of Israelis who see US President Barack Obama's policies as pro-Israel has fallen to four percent, according to a Smith Research poll taken this week on behalf of The Jerusalem Post. Fifty-one percent of Jewish Israelis consider Obama's administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israel, according to the survey, while 35% consider it neutral and 10% declined to express an opinion. The poll of 500 people representing a statistical model of the Jewish Israeli population had a margin of error of 4.5%. A much-cited...

(IsraelNN.com) Many American Jewish organizations have publicly offered words of support for U.S. President Barack Obama's He told the religious leaders, "I need you to spread the facts and speak the truth." healthcare nationalization plans. However, some expressed serious reservations over certain aspects of the likely reforms. On Wednesday, Obama devoted a single conference call to non-Orthodox Jewish religious leaders before addressing over 140,000 other American religious leaders to promote his ideas on healthcare. In his first conference call of the day, President Obama spoke with over 1,000 rabbis and lay leaders from the Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist movements

(IsraelNN.com) Rubin Margules, a member of the Zionist Organization of America’s National Executive Board, told Israel National News that American Jews have begun to realize they made a mistake by voting for U.S. President Barack Obama. Margules, who accompanied former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee on his trip to Judea and Samaria Tuesday, said Israel should learn to find alliances outside of the U.S. and act in its own best interests.

A majority of Jewish Democrats oppose President Barack Obama's Israel policies according to a new poll commissioned by former Clinton administration pollster Dick Morris. Morris' poll showed that while 58 percent of respondents think Obama is doing a good job promoting Middle East peace, 55 percent believe that he is "naive in thinking that the Palestinians would make peace" and that Palestinians "will just use the new land as a base to attack Israel like they did in Gaza." The poll, conducted by Global Marketing Research Services in late July surveyed 500 Jews who voted for Obama in 2008.

Jewish Democrats strongly agree with the Israeli position and disagree with President Barack Obama's on issues such as a Palestinian state, settlement construction, and trading land for peace. Does the president realize he's at risk of a break with an important part of his base? A phone survey (sponsored by the Traditional Values Coalition and conducted by Global Marketing Research Services on July 22-24) of 500 American Jews who self-identified as Democrats exposes broad disagreement with Obama's Middle East policies. Asked to choose between the Obama view that "if Israel could settle its dispute with the Palestinian refugees and give...

JEWISH Democrats strongly agree with the Israeli position and dis agree with President Obama's on issues such as a Palestinian state, settlement construction and trading land for peace. Does the president realize he's at risk of a break with an important part of his base? A phone survey (sponsored by the Traditional Values Coalition and conducted by Global Marketing Research Services on July 22-24) of 500 American Jews who self-identified as Democrats exposes broad disagreement with Obama's Middle East policies. Asked to choose between the Obama view that "if Israel could settle its dispute with the Palestinian refugees and give...

Opposed to the right of Jews to build in Jerusalem, Obama’s administration can no longer be considered impartial, let alone friendly. He’s out to “liberate” the Holy Land. Taking an extreme position — contrary to what Ambassador Michael Oren believes — is unprecedented. No American president has made Israeli settlements the issue; nor has there been such an ignorance of the threats Israel faces and a willingness to jeopardize Israel’s basic security interests. Linking action against Iran to preventing Jews from building in Judea and Samaria, areas Israel conquered in 1967, characterizes a policy of American aggressiveness against an ally...

Chairman of the (US) National Jewish Democratic Council: Jews should shut up and let Obama impose his policies on Israel [Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: It should come as no surprise that Marc Stanley - no doubt after investing his own reputation and professional future in Barack Obama - is compelled to blindly accept and support any and every policy move by his hero (and possibly meal ticket). But that's hardly a compelling reason that other Americans should simply shut up and sit back Stanley confuses communications between representatives of the Jewish State and President Obama in which the Americans...

Benn points out that Obama's repeated attacks on Holocaust denial resonate more strongly with US Jews than with Israelis and that the two Jewish populations have "different historical narratives." Benn is onto something when he notes the differences between Israeli and American Jews. But he fails to grasp the real significance of what Obama is doing and what is actually happening in relations between the two communities. It isn't that Obama is confusing the two groups. Through both his rhetoric and his actions, Obama is demonstrating his priorities and concerns. Obama cares about securing the support of American Jews. He...

A huge crack has surfaced in Obama's Jewish base in the person of Alan Solow, one of the president's closest Chicago friends and long-time supporters. Solow, who was named chairman of the Conference of President of Major Jewish Organizations last December, just released a highly critical statement on behalf of the 52-member group, in which he thoroughly disagrees with Obama's demand that Israel halt all construction of Jewish housing in East Jerusalem, including the Old City -- the holiest place in Judaism.

Ever since President Barack Obama took office, Jewish leaders have been asking for a meeting with him. The White House, apparently thinking Jewish support for Obama was in the pocket, put them off. But a major Jewish leader says that after Newsmax.com reported on deep concerns in the Jewish community about Obama’s Middle East initiatives and statements, the White House responded quickly by asking 14 top Jewish leaders to meet with the president on July 13. Yet that important Jewish leader, Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, says he was barred from attending the meeting because of...

On Monday President Obama met with leaders of 13 Jewish Organizations most of whom worked to get him elected along with two anti-Israel lobbying groups (JStreet and Americans for Peace Now), with the purpose of calming their nerves regarding the President's one-sided criticism of the the Jewish State. According to the Israeli Newspaper Ha'aretz: “ Obama told the leaders that he wants to help Israel overcome its demographic problem by reaching an agreement on a two-state solution, but that in order to do so, Israel would need "to engage in serious self-reflection." Serious self-reflection !?@! Every day for the last...

At a critical juncture in the formation of this country’s Mideast policy, Alan Dershowitz has taken a public stand portraying Obama as a friend of Israel. Dershowitz recently stated in Frontpage Magazine that he “will continue to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt.” Dershowitz makes this assertion notwithstanding the abundant measures that the Obama administration has taken indicating that it has very little interest in maintaining the strong friendship that America and Israel have sustained throughout previous administrations. Dershowitz’s Frontpage article follows a piece in the Wall Street Journal in which Dershowitz vapidly argued that Obama’s strident policy...

The difference between radical Muslims and liberal American Jews is that the former seek to become martyrs, while the latter aspire to become victims. In an ironic twist of fate, radical Muslims and liberal American Jews were made for each other. This ideological symbiosis is sufficient to give pause to the presence of intelligent design. But like all things that seem to emanate from a higher power, there is a paradoxical twist. It is not themselves that liberal American Jews want to sacrifice on the altar of victimhood; it is their Israeli brethren. Barack Hussein Obama received nearly eighty percent...

Accustomed as he is to public speaking here and around the country, David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee, can read an audience as well as anyone. Lately, he says, he is "hearing a growing number of questions and concerns about the U.S.-Israel relationship, and a sense that the Obama administration’s response to the Iran crisis was slower than it should have been." Harris is not alone. Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, says the normal anxiety level among American Jews when a new administration takes shape has been heightened to new levels because President Obama...

Have the Obama administration's Middle East policies created stress for our friends at the National Jewish Democratic Council? One possible clue is that their blog just began regular cross-posting of blog posts from a site called "Neurotic Democrat." But more straightforward evidence can be found in a series of increasingly ludicrous "Fact sheets" that are about as convincing as the Wizard of Oz thundering "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." Last year, NJDC assured Jewish voters, “Obama believes Israel’s Security is Paramount” and highlighted Obama’s pledge to AIPAC leaders that if he was elected the U.S. would...

First off, let me say that given the historical hatred for Jews in the world, I am loath to write an article critical of members of my own faith. But this needs to be said, and I'm going to say it. To all Jews reading this, take the time and fully digest the ideas being discussed here. Yes, I'm Jewish, but unlike most of my brethren, I voted McCain. Living in New York, I've been amazed by just how many fellow Jews supported Obama in the 2008 election. Many of them Liberals, proud, loud, outspoken Liberals who won't even debate...

Among American Jews, a degree of ‘buyers’ remorse’ has been detected recently. Almost 80 per cent of American Jews voted for Barack Obama as President. Those of us who warned that this man would endanger Israel were scorned. How could that possibly be, said the secular, liberal American Jews. He’s a Democrat, he’s black and he’s pro-abortion. With this triple-lock of unassailable virtue, how can he be bad for Israel? Now some of them are getting an awful feeling that they may have made the biggest misjudgment of their lives. As the world watched events unfold in Iran, Obama’s double...

Have American Jews abandoned Israel in favor of President Obama? This is a central question in the minds of Israelis today. In a poll of Israeli Jews conducted in mid-June by the Jerusalem Post, a mere 6 percent of respondents said they view Obama as pro-Israel. In stark contrast, a Gallup tracking poll in early May showed that 79 percent of American Jews support the president. These numbers seem to tell us that U.S. Jews have indeed parted company with the Jewish state. No American president has ever been viewed as similarly ill disposed toward Israel by Israelis. With only...

"Mark my words," Vice President Joe Biden told donors a few months before the election, "It will not be six months before the world tests Barrack Obama … We're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. And he's going to need help … to stand with him. Because it's not going to be apparent initially; it's not going to be apparent that we're right." One could easily have said the same thing about American Jews and their relationship with Israel. It is being severely tested. As it turns out, Israel is...

JERUSALEM -- A new poll shows only 6 percent of Israeli Jews see President Barack Obama's administration as pro-Israel, while 50 percent see it as pro-Palestinian. That is a dramatic change from the previous U.S. administration of George W. Bush, which 88 percent termed "pro-Israel" and just 2 percent labeled pro-Palestinian. Many Israelis reject Obama's call for a total settlement freeze and have come to see him as overly sympathetic to Palestinian claims.

Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Yet while the Iranian government has civilians terrorized, college students dragged away and executed, and young women getting the crap kicked out of them, and Obama has hardly said anything. He’s actually gone one extra step, saying, “Not our business. We don’t want to be seen as meddling.” He says he’s concerned for the Iranian people but then in the next breath says whoever the Iranian government decides is the winner of this suspicious election is the winner. What a soulless...

There’s an article in the May/June Boston Review on an interesting study that seems (I wonder why?) to have gotten little attention. Neil Malhotra, of Stanford Business School, and Yotam Margalit, who teaches political science at Columbia, report on a survey of 2,768 American adults in which they “explored people’s responses to the economic collapse and tried to determine how anti-Semitic sentiments might relate to the ongoing financial crisis.” They asked, “How much to blame were the Jews for the financial crisis?”, with respondents given five categories: a great deal, a lot, a moderate amount, a little, not at all....

President Obama’s strongest supporters among Jewish leaders are deeply troubled by his recent Middle East initiatives, and some are questioning what he really believes, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, tells Newsmax in an exclusive interview.

American Jews and Israel would do well to take a page from the book of Saul Alinsky, who provides the radical underpinning for much of how the Obama left sees the world: "As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be." It is time for American Jews to leave the Democratic Party, to see reality as it is and not how they wish it to be. To be a Jew in this world is dangerous ...and our president and his party are deliberately making it more so (even...

Before the election I begged American Jews to take a look at Obama's history of siding with Arab causes and his anti Israel advisers so they could see the truth about Obama feelings toward Israel. I warned that if they wait till after the Election, it would be too late. For the most part my pleas and those of others like me were ignored. People preferred to listen to people like Marty Peretz, of the New Republic who now complains about Obama, but still refuses to acknowledge the fact that he helped to make him win. According to Malcolm Hoenlein,...

It just slipped out. Could have happened to any far leftist, really. Consider this another reminder that frequently the chief difference between liberal anti-semites and, ahem, “conservative” ones is that the lefties are more scrupulous about using code. A few choice lines discovered by police in James Von Brunn’s notebook today:

Pro-Eretz Yisrael demonstrators took part in a protest outside the US Consulate on Jerusalem’s Agron Street on Wednesday, with some displaying pictures of US President Barak Obama in a kefiya traditional Arab headdress, and some even carrying signs reading “Barak Hussein Obama – An Anti-Semite”. The event was timed on the eve of the American president’s message to the international community, taking place today, Thursday, in Cairo. Women in Green reports 250 participants in the event, stating speakers included Dr Moti Keidar of Bar-Ilan University who spoke in Arabic, Rabbi Sholom Gold, Dean Jerusalem College for Adults, MK Aryeh Eldad...

American Jews overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama, the Candidate of Change, despite credible warnings and ample evidence that he would obsessively seek to create a Palestinian state at Israel's expense and "engage" nuclear-arming, Islamist Iran. After four months of Change, Obama's support in the Jewish community seems rock solid. Besides, many Jews say, Obama's appointment of two Jews to key White House positions - Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff and David Axelrod as presidential senior adviser - proves Obama is OK for Israel. So what if the meeting with Netanyahu didn't go as well as first advertised? Bibi's a...

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Jewish groups don't endorse U.S. Supreme Court nominees, at least in writing. The tears and choked sobs when Sonia Sotomayor accepted President Obama's nomination on Tuesday told another story. Packed into the room along with Sotomayor's family, friends and colleagues were representatives of Jewish groups that have consulted with the White House about prospective replacements for David Souter. The story of her life -- the daughter of a Puerto Rican single mother from the Bronx, N.Y., whose ambitions knew no bounds -- resounded with a community that has made the story of immigrant triumph over struggle a...

Jewish groups don't endorse US Supreme Court nominees, at least in writing. The tears and choked sobs when Sonia Sotomayor accepted President Obama's nomination on Tuesday told another story. Packed into the room along with Sotomayor's family, friends and colleagues were representatives of Jewish groups that have consulted with the White House about prospective replacements for David Souter. The story of her life - the daughter of a Puerto Rican single mother from the Bronx, NY, whose ambitions knew no bounds - resounded with a community that has made the story of immigrant triumph over struggle a template of Jewish...

In times past, coalminers working in the depths of the earth took along caged canaries. As long as the canaries warbled, the miners knew they were safe from the methane and carbon monoxide that would kill them in minutes. But when the tiny songbirds stopped singing, the miners knew to run for their lives. Jews have always been the canaries in the coal mines of civilization, serving as a warning of impending doom to those who believed, as Churchill said, that the crocodile — of tyranny — would eat them last. The Jews of Hitler's Germany who listened carefully to...

American Jews are liberal Democrats before supporters of Israel and this spells big trouble Israel. Since Harry Truman every American President has courted Jewish votes with his support for Israel. But time has frayed the emotional ties between America’s Jews and their “homeland” Israel. Until Obama’s campaign no candidate recognized this. The Obama team is loathsome and Marxists, but make no mistake, their political acumen on the question of Israel is flawless. Obama is making it clear he’s using his presidency to change American foreign policy to favor the Palestinians over Israel and he’s not worried about the consequences. Until...

Our interview, part of a speaker series organized by the American Jewish University on April 27, included a dinner and post-event cocktail “meet and greet.” Maybe I was naïve, but after chatting with the guests, I assumed the audience would be pretty evenly split politically. But on that stage, in front of about 2,500 people, I felt like the visiting team shooting free throws at a crucial moment in the game. I was booed, hissed, and heckled while Ashcroft and Gonzales were regularly applauded.

Despite fierce op-ed page debates over the Obama administration's actions so far on Israel, Iran and the Middle East as a whole, American Jews are unwavering in their support of the new president, according to a new Gallup poll. Tracking polls conducted through Obama's first 100 days in office show that 79 percent of Jews approve of Obama's performance so far, about the same percentage that voted for him last November. Only Muslims gave Obama higher approval ratings, with 85 percent responding that they approve of the president. Respondents who identified themselves as nonreligious also indicated overwhelming support, with 73%...

Comedian Sarah Silverman has gotten a lot of mileage out of the notion that older Jewish voters, especially those in Florida, need to be persuaded to support Senator Barack Obama. Yet as it turns out, those bubbes and zaydes may be the ones prodding their grandchildren to support the Democratic nominee for president. Contrary to the perception that young people are in the bag for Obama, polls indicate that younger Jewish voters are more likely than older Jews to support Republican Sen. John McCain for president. This surprising finding most recently turned up in an October 23 analysis by Gallup...

Its only been five weeks, but the President has made great strides to prove what many in the conservative community were warning the Jewish voters, Obama will not be their side when it comes to "Jewish Issues."......I have focused on the "foreign policy" decisions which should be disturbing to the Jewish community, my friend Ed Lasky takes a look at some of the domestic policy reasons why Obama's Jewish voters may be disappointed with their vote

Zuckerman, Lawmakers, Local Jews Say Secretary Of State Not The Hillary Clinton They Used To Know Hillary Pressuring Israel To Speed Up Aid To Gaza. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to members and guests of the Asia Society Feb. 13, 2009, in New York City. Secretary Clinton's speech was made ahead of her first official trip to the East Asian countries. Mario Tama/Getty Images In a swift about face from her views as New York's senator, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now hammering Israel over its treatment of Palestinians in Gaza. As first lady, Clinton raised eyebrows...

The economic stimulus bill enacted by President Obama will provide $1 billion to Jewish nursing homes and social service agencies, according to the United Jewish Communities. The funds come from the $87 billion that the legislation allots for state Medicaid programs as a result of an increase in the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, or FMAP. An increase in FMAP was a top priority for UJC, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and other Jewish groups that lobbied for passage of the $787 billion bill signed Tuesday by Obama. The federation system receives about...