AJC Poll: US Jews Say No to Redividing Jerusalem

Posted on September 30, 2009 In Blog

Today, the American Jewish Committee released their Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion.

As has been the case in the past, a clear majority of American Jews (58%) do not believe that “Israel [should be willing] to compromise on the status of Jerusalem as a united city under Israeli jurisdiction” even “in the framework of a permanent peace with the Palestinians.” This bottom line is true across all the community’s denominations (Orthodox: 77%, Conservative: 65%, Reform: 60% opposed a compromise on Jerusalem).

Also striking, is the Survey’s findings that those polled disagreed with “the Obama Administration’s call for a stop to all new Israeli settlement construction by 51% to 41%. Again, this was the majority view across all the denominations (Orthodox: 74%, Conservative: 62%, Reform: 46% (to 45% approving)).

Notable too are attitudes toward President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

When asked: “Do you approve or disapprove of the Obama Administration’s handling of U.S.-Israel relations?” 54% approved and 32% disapproved. One could have expected the Orthodox to be the outlier here – and indeed, 70% of Orthodox respondents disapproved of Obama’s policies. But even among the other groups, the finding that 54% of Conservative respondents and 59% of Reform respondents is a significant shortfall from a rate of more than 80% among those who voted for Mr. Obama in the 2008 election.