Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Obama Thumping Romney Among Jews: Poll

Way Ahead: A new poll shows President Barack Obama holding a commanding lead over Republican Mitt Romney among Jewish voters. Image by getty images

On the eve of presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s visit to Israel, a new Gallup poll reveals that Jewish American voters continue to support his rival, President Barack Obama, by a wide 68%-25% margin.

According to the poll, released on Friday, Americans have a generally positive view of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with 35% viewing him favorably, compared to 23% who view him negatively. 41% of Americans say they have no opinion of Netanyahu one way or another.

Mitt Romney Image by getty images

The new results closely match the overall American opinion that Americans had of Netanyahu at the end of 1999, Gallup said, with one crucial difference: Republicans now have a higher opinion of the Israeli prime minister than they did then, and Democrats have a lower opinion.

According to the new poll, Republicans favor Netanyahu by a wide margin of 50% positive against only 16% who view him negatively, but among Democrats, only 25% view him positively while 31% view him negatively. Among independent voters, Netanyahu’s ratings are 32% positive and 23% negative.

The large disparity between the two American parties is ascribed in the Gallup communiqué to the frosty relations between Obama and Netanyahu, but they also reflect the concern voiced by many American Jewish leaders that by trying to use Israel as a “wedge issue” in the American elections, Republicans are contributing to a distancing of Democrats from support for Israel, in general, and its current government, in particular.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.