68% of ‘connected’ American Jews support the US-Israel war against Iran, survey finds
The results suggest U.S. Jews are more supportive than Americans overall but less than Israeli Jews
About two-thirds of “connected” American Jews support the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, a new survey has found, even as they are concerned that it could exacerbate antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment in the United States.
The results of the survey, taken last week by Israel’s Jewish People Policy Institute, suggest that American Jews are more supportive of the war than Americans overall. Multiple surveys last week found that about 60% of American voters opposed the military action, with support significantly lower among Democrats, historically the party of most Jewish voters.
A partisan shift was apparent in the JPPI survey, with near-total support for the war from those who describe themselves as politically conservative. Still, 57% of “leaning liberal” Jews said they support the war. Self-identified “strong liberals” were the only group of U.S. Jews to say they oppose the war, with only 28% backing it.
The survey of 692 American Jews drew from a panel maintained by JPPI that aims to reflect the denominational distribution of U.S. Jews. The institute says its polls reflect the sentiments of “connected” Jews because its panel includes fewer intermarried Jews, more Jews who are affiliated with denominations and more Jews who have lived in Israel than demographic data would suggest is representative of U.S Jewry overall.
The JPPI survey finds that American Jews are more like Israeli Jews than like U.S. voters overall. An Israel Democracy Institute poll taken last week found that 93% of Jewish Israelis supported the military operations against Iran.
Iran has long waged a campaign against both Israel and the United States, but while it has struck at U.S. targets around the world, Israel is geographically in its crosshairs. Its missiles killed dozens of Israelis during a 12-day war last year and have killed more than a dozen already during the current war, which has expanded to much of the Middle East.
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have indicated that in addition to ending Iran’s nuclear ambitions and demolishing its military infrastructure, they want the nearly 50-year-old Islamic Republic regime to fall. The JPPI poll found that only a quarter of U.S. Jews say regime change should be a primary goal of the war, compared with 58% who say the war should seek to “eliminate nuclear program, ballistic missile capabilities, and support of terror.”
American Jews polled by JPPI also said they expected the war to increase both antisemitism (52%) and anti-Israel sentiment (45%) in the United States. Already, the war has sparked debate over whether Trump was forced into the conflict by Netanyahu — a narrative they both have rejected. The survey found that 72% of American Jews believe Trump needed no convincing, while only 14% believe Netanyahu was the primary driver of military action against Iran.
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