Majority Of American Jews Think U.S. Should Strike Iran: Poll

One day ahead of talks in Geneva between Iran and six major powers - the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany - on Tehran's controversial nuclear program, a national poll finds that 56 percent of American Jews support a U.S. military strike against Iran.

The annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, commissioned by the American Jewish Committee, revealed a 14 percent rise in the number of U.S. Jews in support of such a military strike, whose aim would be to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. 36 percent of those polled - self-described adult Jews ? were against such an attack.

Asked whether Israel should attack Iran, 66 percent of those polled said they would support such a move.

At this time, 49 percent of those polled said that they support the policy of U.S. President Barack Obama toward Iran. Obama has expressed desire to resolve the standoff with Iran with diplomatic measures, recently adding that should the diplomacy fail, steps would have to be taken. 35% of those polled said they oppose Obama's policy.
...

Read the whole story: Haaretz.

Comments

[EdwardMRoche]

03:25 PM on 10/04/2009

It is easy to recommend war when you are an armchair strategist and don't have to fight it.

Negotiations even if frustrating are better than the loss of innocent lives.

[Hillrick]

10:15 AM on 10/05/2009

"I can hear the cries of children and the other songs of war..."
Standing on the moon.

I whole heartedly agree with you. I also wonder that the organization polled Jewish Americans who they are in contact with. I cannot believe if you asked all Jewish people here that the would give this response.

[xena]

12:31 PM on 10/04/2009

Since Jews make up between 1% - 2% of the U.S. population I don't think their opinion really counts. If they're all happy-clappy about death and destruction let them pack up their children and have at it.

[jeanrenoir]

10:58 AM on 10/06/2009

Precisely. Despite their huge economic success, and consequent political power in America, Jews are actually an insignificant percentage of American voters. Neocon Jews have done an excellent job (before Obama) of controlling American foreign policy for Likud Israel ever since they threw in with Reagan and the Christian Right in 1980, joining them at the hip with Israel, by bankrolling the media blitz of the Conservative Movement, and by co-opting white Moral Majority types to do the actual voting for them. Rush's ditto-machine, straight from Likud headquarters, would always told them how to vote. The success of the neocons and Likud in controlling American foreign policy for Israel from 1980 to 2008 (with the partial exception of Bush I) made them insanely arrogant. So they hatched the stupid and disastrous war in Iraq to "protect" Israel and "re-make" the Middle East. This led, of course, to a gigantic strengthening of both of Israel's worst, potentially nuclear, enemies: Iran and Bin Laden. Learning little from this fiasco, the neocons and Likud are still so blinded by their arrogance that they think Israel could actually get away with bombing Iran in America. But no matter how Fox and Rush spun it, even someone as dumb as Joe the Plumber would finally figure out that his post-bombing $15 gas at the pump, as well as the implosion of America's economy into total Depression, had come to him straight from Israel. The backlash against Israel would be unbelievable.

[bubbepenny]

05:50 AM on 10/04/2009

are you SURE this is not a slanted poll? one needs to be very careful with statistics. as an american jew i am not in favor of a war with iran. i AM in favor of diplomatic contact and sanctions. i dont think ANYONE wants iran to have nuclear weapons.

[evil goat]

12:11 PM on 10/04/2009

The American Jewish Committee consists almost entirely of older and far more orthodox jews. So they took an extremely small section of the jewish population then bullsh *t it out to make a blanket statement.

[drsimon]

02:02 AM on 10/03/2009

then let them send their sons, and only their sons, to do the fighting

[keysbreezin]

08:15 PM on 10/03/2009

Here, here! Well said.

[NoSillyName]

12:54 AM on 10/03/2009

Not surprising.

[mamacat]

12:31 AM on 10/03/2009

Very scary. Israel has a very strong influence on American views and actions in the world.

[max08]

08:50 PM on 10/02/2009

Striking Iran will provoke devastation here with astronomical oil prices and the subsequent food shortages and higher prices. It could produce WWIII.

Why do American Jews wish that on their countrymen?

[SpoonieLuv]

04:49 PM on 10/02/2009

I can't believe that someone could have as much hate in their hearts these people seem to have for Muslims.

[MosheDayanHero]

10:27 PM on 10/02/2009

Gallup Poll completed this week --
80% of Americans say they hold an unfavorable opinion of Iran -- more than say the same about any other country.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/114586/majority-americans-support-direct-diplomacy-iran.aspx

[thrdr]

01:05 AM on 10/03/2009

You're really reading a big slant into that poll. I don't think that it indicates a majority of Americans think the U.S. should attack Iran; in fact, quite the opposite.

[CigarGod]

10:36 AM on 10/03/2009

You think a poll - after a major pr campaign and years/decades of demonization of Iran - actually reflects thoughtfulness of people and somehow validates the Israeli position?

[yemaya]

09:59 AM on 10/03/2009

Because certain muslims had so much hate for us that they blew up a few buildings in New York, remember that? Yeah, maybe that's it...

[CaptainHowdy2]

01:52 PM on 10/03/2009

Blew up? Interesting choice of words.

Most of those people were Saudis BTW.

[Richter]

02:49 PM on 10/03/2009

So you think the hateful actions of "certain Muslims" justify hating ALL 1.3 billion Muslims on the planet?

[Unsui]

11:38 AM on 10/02/2009

I have trouble believing this poll. Who did it, StrategicVisions?

[baffy]

10:40 AM on 10/02/2009

Israel duped Bush into attacking Iraq and we all know how that has turned out. Fortunately Obama gets it. The US will not be fooled again by Israel. Let Israel destroy its own 200 nuclear warheads before they start pointing fingers at everyone else.

[LyssaBarnes]

08:58 PM on 10/02/2009

Better yet, let Israel take care of Iran itself. I think we've sold them enough arms and send enough money to take handle matters.

[CaptainHowdy2]

01:53 PM on 10/03/2009

Yep.

[digdeeper]

05:57 AM on 10/03/2009

The "Intelligence" from Israel enabled Bush to lie about the evidence to justify invading Iraq. Don't forget that at the time Israel saw Iraq as a threat and constantly used propaganda to support their views
Now Israel is at it again, this time with Iran.. The tail wagging the dog eh?
If just for once we try to get the picture from the Iranian point of view we might see that Israel's hawkish postures and frequent threats towards them might just leave them feeling threatened and therefore looking for ways of defending themselves. Remember, unlike Israel, Iran has never invaded another country.
They want every state around them to be lame ducks with no defence systems so that they can dictate terms and of course delay, delay, delay peace initiatives in order to steal more land from the Palestinians. The consequence of this is more and more anger directed at them.
American jews should join with the rest of the world jewry to condemn Israel's hawkish policies. As times goes on, I have noticed a rise in anti-semetism around the world. Surely that is a good enough reason for disquiet amongst jews in America. How can they subscribe to the view that yet another war would solve the situation.

[gakabani]

12:27 PM on 10/03/2009

thank you for your well written post. you hot yourself a fan!!!

[GZLives]

01:52 PM on 10/03/2009

Great post ... good material for a novel however far from true so lets keep it honest

srael urged US to attack Iran - not Iraq
By Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON - Israeli officials warned the George W Bush administration that an invasion of Iraq would be destabilizing to the region and urged the United States instead to target Iran as the primary enemy, according to former Bush administration official Lawrence Wilkerson.

Wilkerson, then a member of the US State Department's policy planning staff and later chief of staff for secretary of state Colin Powell, recalled in an interview that the Israelis reacted immediately to indications that the Bush administration was thinking of war against Iraq. After the Israeli government picked up the first signs of that intention, said Wilkerson, "The Israelis were telling us Iraq is not the enemy - Iran is the enemy."

Wilkerson describes the Israeli message to the Bush administration in early 2002 as being, "If you are going to destabilize the balance of power, do it against the main enemy."

The warning against an invasion of Iraq was "pervasive" in Israeli communications with the US administration, Wilkerson recalled. It was conveyed to the administration by a wide range of Israeli sources, including political figures, intelligence, and private citizens.

Wilkerson noted that the main point of their communications was not that the US should immediately attack Iran, but that "it should not be distracted by Iraq and Saddam Hussein" from a focus on the threat from Iran

[Harpseal60]

10:17 AM on 10/02/2009

Getting in a nuke fight with any country means both sides lose. There is no winners when nukes are involved. Diplomacy is the best answer for now.

[Yank in France]

09:35 AM on 10/02/2009

I agree that Iran is a huge threat to regional security and still has lots of blood in its hands via the support of terrorist acts, not just in the ME, but in Europe and South America. Remember, Argentina has just charged their former president, Mr Menem, with blocking investigation of the bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires which killed dozens of innocents civilians!
BUT, does this mean it makes sense for Americans (yeah, remember them?) or European to support a prolonged military intervention against Iran to stop them from developing nukes? My answer up to recently was YES, but Israel's threat in the last Lebenon was and in following face-offs with the Syrians, I noticed that they threatened to use "strategic" weapons (meaning nukes!) EARLY in any confrontation, as opposed to a means of last resort!
Jewish Americans want war with Iran, just as Israel wanted a US war "against" IRAQ a few years ago, but if we attack Iran or allow Israel free access to airspace we control in Iraq and Saudi Arabia (remember the AWACs?), we will be viewed, for the first time ever, as a direct participant in hostilities...which could last for quite a long time period...
Can anyone gauge the potential loss in oil revenue if Iran blocks the Straits of Hormuz, as they have threatened to do?????

[CaptainHowdy2]

01:54 PM on 10/03/2009

The only country that I see attacking it's neighbors and destabilizing the region is Israel. They are the real threat in the region.

[Wisdo]

08:54 AM on 10/02/2009

Thats a sad poll.

That Jewish people - traditionally pacifists - are now caught up in the rights warmongering to the extent that they believe war will bring peace. And that PRE-EMPTIVE war is just.

[PWM]

09:10 AM on 10/02/2009

They must be listening to Fox.

[CarlyHope]

10:41 PM on 10/03/2009

OR they're listening to Ahmadinejad and are freaked.

[joebaggadonuts]

09:22 AM on 10/02/2009

Like with any other piece of information, check the source. It's not unbiased. Haaretz is an Israeli newspaper, apparently with an axe to grind.

[ChristopherAtom]

10:12 AM on 10/02/2009

There in lies the dilemma: who can you believe if everyone has an agenda. And if thats the case how much of the info I've retained over the years is tainted by that false info. How can any of us trust one another? The answer is, we can't. Corruption is the way the game is played and we are nothing but pawns for those who squirm there way into the drivers seat.

The human race, all of it, black, white, red, brown, yellow, blue, male, female, gay, bi, straight, long, tall, short, fat, young and old, all of us are of a beautiful majestic God-like creatures, yet we treat each other like dogs. Tragic beyond words.

[gandolf101]

08:06 AM on 10/02/2009

the Sunni arabs have no problem with israel giving a Iran (Shiites)
a good beating.

If iran gets the bomb , then Eygpt and or Saudi Arabia will get the bomb
as they fear iran more then Israel . Then again Israel attacked a Syrian Nuclear power plant
even had soldiers on the ground in Syria and Syria did not respond .

I also dont think Irans military is any match for Israel, not at all.

[Garioch]

08:44 AM on 10/02/2009

As Israel have nuclear weapons then very few are a match for their military but if they carry on the way they are going lashing out as they feel like it, ignoring international law and attacking other nations at will then the time will come when they pick on someone (like Iran) who have a sponsor (like China) who get tired enough of their antics to hit back.
Israel is playing a short term game plan in a long term situation.

[WilliamL]

09:02 AM on 10/02/2009

yup

[PWM]

09:11 AM on 10/02/2009

Good point. China has the economic clout to back Iran and force the US to back off.

[SFA]

11:06 AM on 10/02/2009

Don't Gloat too much,

When attack happens, you can see the reactions on the street.

And these muslim leaders supporting attack on Iran will have a lot of explaining to do.

You don't understand how muslims will react to an attack on Iran, after Attack on Afghanistan, After Attack on Iraq.

[Hirnlego]

07:56 AM on 10/02/2009

More proof that people are GULLIBLE.