What most American Jews think

I received this note from J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami yesterday. It may be important to note that American Jews on the whole favor Democrats and support a two-state solution as well as the Iran nuclear deal.

Since our founding over ten years ago, J Street has battled to overturn the false “conventional wisdom” that American voters want their leaders to take a conservative, right-leaning approach to Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This old school playbook argued that candidates for president should not in any way criticize Israeli government policies, sympathize with the legitimate needs of Palestinians alongside those of Israel or talk about the need to end the occupation.

For years, our election day polling of Jewish voters has demonstrated that this way of thinking is completely out of touch with the reality in our community.

Now a new, first-of-its-kind nationwide poll that we’ve commissioned of likely Democratic primary voters across the country shows that the outdated conventional wisdom doesn’t apply to them either.

While there’s been a great deal of media hype about a major Democratic division on Israel, our poll demonstrates that there is actually a clear consensus among the large majority in support of pro-Israel, pro-peace positions and a proactive, even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Democratic voters are supportive of Israel — but not its current leadership; and these two positions aren’t mutually exclusive. While Israel had a strong +25 percent favorability rating, Prime Minister Netanyahu is underwater at -27 percent. An overwhelming 81 percent believe that “someone can be critical of Israeli government policies and still be pro-Israel.”
• They reject the false dichotomy between “pro-Israel” and “pro-Palestinian.” In addition to their positive views of Israel, voters are mostly favorable towards Palestinians as well (+13 percent). The vast majority (75 percent) said they would be most likely to vote for a candidate who supported both Israelis and Palestinians, rather than one who sided exclusively with either.
• Voters want the US to act as a fair and impartial broker to achieve peace — and push both sides to make compromises and stop harmful actions. 74 percent said they want the US to act as a fair and impartial broker for peace negotiations. 61 percent said they were less likely to support a candidate who believes that the US “must stand behind all of [PM] Netanyahu’s policies.”
• The Iran deal remains very popular. While the Trump administration continues to dangerously increase the prospects for a new war of choice, 72 percent of Democratic voters support the US re-entering the JCPOA nuclear agreement.
• Most voters have never even heard of BDS — but they oppose legislation designed to penalize BDS supporters. While the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement has received a ton of media attention, only 36 percent of voters have even heard of it, and only 12 percent support. Voters are also clearly against heavy-handed attempts to pass legislation that punishes BDS supporters and infringes on free speech rights — 54 percent oppose, while just 22 percent support.

…These results are invaluable for J Street as we work to shape our national foreign policy conversation for the better and permanently bring an end to the old, outdated playbook.

We’re sending a message to 2020 hopefuls: Pro-Israel, pro-peace, diplomacy-first positions are very popular politically. Democratic voters want to see their next president embrace constructive, diplomatic solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iranian nuclear threat.

If candidates can make clear that they respect the legitimate rights and needs of both Israelis and Palestinians, that they support Israel but not Netanyahu and that they won’t give a free pass to destructive actions by leaders on either side, they can unite their party behind them and help chart a bold and effective new course for American leadership in the Middle East.