8 | DECEMBER 19 • 2019 

I

t’
s the perennial anomaly of 
Jewish voter surveys: Vast 
majorities feel an attach-
ment to Israel, but relatively 
few are thinking about the 
Jewish state when they cast 
their vote.
On the day of 
last year’
s mid-
term congres-
sional elections, 
J Street, the 
liberal Jewish 
Middle East pol-
icy group, asked 
Jewish voters to name their 
two most important issues. 
Just 4 percent chose Israel. The 
same survey found that 65 per-
cent said they were somewhat 
or very emotionally attached 
to Israel.
The J Street survey is not an 
outlier. The American Jewish 
Committee, a foreign policy 
and civil rights group, found a 
similar discrepancy in its 2015 
poll, in which barely a quarter 
of respondents listed Israel as 
one of their top three issues, 
though more than 70 percent 
agreed strongly or somewhat 
that caring about Israel is “a 
very important part” of being 
Jewish.
What accounts for the dif-
ference?

Like most American voters, 
Jewish Americans tend to care 
about issues that directly affect 
them more than what’
s going 
on in a country an ocean away.
The J Street survey found 
that 43 percent of Jewish 
Americans listed health care as 
one of their top two issues in 
2018, a time when President 
Donald Trump was attempt-
ing to dismantle health care 
protections passed under 
President Barack Obama. In 
2015, the AJC survey found 
that 41.7 percent of U.S. Jews 
listed the economy as one of 
their top concerns amid the 
ongoing recovery from the 
Great Recession of the late 
2000s.
“When pollsters prod 
Americans about their foreign 
policy views, the results are 
clear: They want the govern-
ment to focus less on the rest 
of the world,” Daniel Drezner, 
a professor of international 
politics at Tufts University, 
has written. “Short of a war 
or other violent attacks on 
American installations, foreign 
policy rarely takes center stage 
during presidential elections. 
Presidential candidates almost 
always campaign on how they 
intend to jump-start the econ-

omy.”
In a hyperpolarized political 
environment, policy particulars 
tend to matter less than which 
side a politician is on, accord-
ing to Kyle Kondik, the man-
aging editor of Sabato’
s Crystal 
Ball, a political newsletter and 
election handicapper at the 
University of Virginia Center 
for Politics. Thus, Jews are 
likelier to vote for their favored 
party than they are to consider 
the specifics of Israel policy.
“
American politics also is 
increasingly defined by the 
concept of ‘
negative partisan-
ship’
 — that is, voting more 
against the other side than for 
your side,” Kondik said in an 
email.
All this presumes that candi-
dates meet a certain baseline of 
support for Israel. Experts on 
Jewish voting behavior say that 
Jewish voters will prioritize 
concerns other than Israel only 
so long as a candidate meets a 
basic threshold of support.
“If a candidate is sympa-
thetic to Israel, has expressed 
support for Israel, that is a 
bright line a candidate has to 
have crossed in order to be 
acceptable to the vast major-
ity of American Jews,” said 
Jason Isaacson, the AJC’
s chief 

policy and political affairs 
officer. “The nuances of how 
[being pro-Israel] is expressed 
becomes less of a factor to 
most American Jews.”
Case in point is Bernie 
Sanders, the Jewish senator 
from Vermont running for 
the Democratic presidential 
nomination. Sanders has been 
extraordinarily critical of the 
Israeli government by the 
standards of American politics, 
even suggesting recently that 
some U.S. aid to Israel should 
instead go to Gaza.
But at the same time, 
Sanders insists he is pro-Israel 
and has criticized those on the 
left who would deny its right to 
exist as a Jewish state.
Sanders’
 expressions of sup-
port for Israel were “designed” 
to meet the threshold for 
Jewish voters, according to 
Issacson.
“My assumption is for a seg-
ment of the American Jewish 
community it will accomplish 
that purpose,” Issacson said.
They might even be an asset, 
according to Jim Gerstein, a 
founding partner of GBAO, 
the firm that conducts J Street’
s 
surveys. Jewish Americans 
are not as hawkish as Israelis, 
Gerstein said, and are more 
likely to favor a more even-
handed role for the United 
States.
“They don’
t want the U.S. 
putting itself in a position 
where it affects its credibility 
because it favors Israel over 
the Palestinians,” Gerstein said. 
“They want the U.S. to be cred-
ible. They don’
t support the 
Israeli government’
s hawkish 
policies.”
Most American presiden-
tial candidates have met the 
Israel threshold, but there are 

Ron 
Kampeas
JTA

Views

commentary

Why Israel Isn’t A Top 
Consideration For
American Jewish Voters

JOANA TORO/VIEWPRESS/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES

When Jewish Americans 
enter the voting booth, they 
are thinking more about 
health care and the economy 
than a country an ocean 
away, polls find. 

continued on page 10