Is the Jewish vote about Israel?
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I would ask Jewish readers of this newspaper to help me think this through.
An article in the August 14 issue of the Daily Beast, a respected New York publication, said: “To read the press, you’d think Israel drives the American Jewish vote. That’s a myth. An October 2008 poll ... found that only 15 per cent of American Jews ranked Israel as one of their three top voting issues.”
The US Jewish voters are reportedly more concerned with the economy, healthcare and fear of Christian right-wingers. And “American Jews feel almost twice as sympathetic to American Muslims as they do to the Christian right,” according to a 2012 survey cited.
So, my questions to Jewish readers are these:
Why do US politicians so publicly embrace Israel, supposedly to get the Jewish vote, if the support of Israel is not that important to Jewish voters?
Are Jewish voters somehow being used as political victims in this great drama of US support for Israel?
Guy Baker
Bangkok
