Three-quarters of Jewish American voters view Trump as a 'threat to Jews', poll finds
Three-quarters of Jewish American voters believe that former US President Donald Trump and his "Make America Great Again" movement are a "threat to Jews in America", according to a recent poll conducted by the pro-Israel Jewish advocacy group J Street.
The poll, conducted in the run-up to and on the day of midterm elections in the US, further found that 74 percent of American Jewish voters cast their ballots for Democrats, while 25 percent voted Republican.
Seventy-six percent of voters, meanwhile, believe Trump and his Republican allies are responsible for a rise in antisemitism in the US, with 74 percent believing Trump and the Maga movement are a "threat to Jews in America".
"The vast majority of our community is deeply alarmed by the rise in antisemitism, white supremacy and far-right extremism driven by Donald Trump and his allies in the GOP," J Street's president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, said in a press release.
The concerns about Trump from Jewish voters polled also translated into a concern over the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), with 72 percent saying they disapproved of Aipac's decision to endorse and support congressional candidates who support Israel but voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election.
The J Street poll notes a repudiation of pro-Trump Republicans and the Trump administration itself, which during its time in office made many overtures to the Israeli government, including brokering the normalisation agreements between Israel and four Arab countries - the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
The Trump administration in 2018 moved the US embassy to Israel to Jerusalem and recognised the city as the capital of Israel, breaking with a position long-held by previous US presidents and sidelining Palestinians calling for East Jerusalem to be the capital in a future state of their own.
The former president also announced that the US recognised Israeli sovereignty over the occupied region of Golan Heights, which was captured from Syria and where the majority of inhabitants are Syrian Druze, who largely refuse to engage with Israeli rule.
Last month, Trump attacked US Jews for not supporting him enough, saying on his Truth Social platform that "US Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel - Before it is too late!"
Trump has a history of speaking as if the Jewish American community holds more allegiance to Israel than to the US.
The J Street poll further found that a majority of Jewish voters strongly oppose Israeli settlement construction, with 37 percent believing Israel should suspend all settlement construction.
A greater majority of voters, 68 percent, also support restricting the annual $3.8bn in military aid to Israel so that it cannot be used to expand Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.
The survey was conducted between 1-8 November and consists of interviews with 800 self-identified Jewish voters who cast their ballots on Election Day or prior to Election Day. The survey has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
Still, a separate exit poll by Fox News on Tuesday found 33 percent of Jewish voters surveyed voted Republican, contrasting with the J Street poll (25 percent), showing an increase in Jewish voters casting their ballots for the Republican party.
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