Poll: Only 4% of American Jews put Israel in top-two voting issues

A J Street election poll found that only 4 percent of American Jews say Israel is a top-two issue when picking a candidate. 

By David Isaac, World Israel News

J Street, the controversial left-wing American Jewish organization which backed the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, reveals in its latest poll that only 4 percent of American Jews say Israel is in one of their top two issues when choosing which candidate to support.

Polling firm GBA Securities conducted the survey on Nov. 6. The poll queried 1,139 Jewish voters including an oversample of 236 Millennials aged 18-34 (130 online, 106 phone) for a total of 436 Millennials. The results show 903 weighted interviews.

“Similar to the overall U.S. population, the economy has receded as the top concern, and Jews’ top issue in 2018 was health care (43 percent cite it as one of their top 2 issues deciding their vote). Gun violence (28 percent) was the second biggest priority, followed by Social Security and Medicare (21 percent), the economy (19 percent), and immigration (18 percent),” GBA Strategies reported to J Street in its summary of the survey.

“Israel remains toward the bottom of the priority list (4 percent, which is a decline from 9 percent in 2016 and places it at 12th on a list of 14 issues,” the polling firm said.

J Street has been carrying out polls of American Jews every election night since 2010, it says.

Q: Below is a list of issues facing our country today. Please mark which TWO of these issues were the most important for you in deciding your vote for Congress today:

Total

Health care  43

Gun violence  28

Social Security and Medicare 21

The economy  19

Immigration  18

The environment 14

Taxes  11

Education 8

The deficit and government spending 8

The Supreme Court  8

ISIS and terrorism 7

Israel  4

Russia  3

Iran  1

Other  8

J Street