One of the most striking things about President Obama's foreign policy is the way he treats the friends of America and the way he treats the enemies of America. Some of the friends who have been disappointed in their relationship with America are Poland and the Czech Republic, who were denied a missile defence system they had been promised under President Bush, Britian, who was simply not given the respect it deserved as a long-time friend, and Israel, who has been asked to make unreasonable concessions in the quest for peace. I have no idea how the Czechs and Polish are handling this, but American Jews are not happy with the Obama Administration.
Yesterday the Israel National News reported a McLaughlin Group poll which found that although 42 percent of American Jews said that they would vote to re-elect President Obama, 46 percent said that they would consider voting for someone else. 12 percent refused to answer the question or said that they did not know. Polls are taken all the time and generally are not all that revealing, but when you consider that 78 percent of American Jews voted for President Obama, that is quite a change.
The article reported:
"The poll showed that key voter segments including Orthodox/Hassidic voters, Conservative voters, voters who have friends and family in Israel and those who have been to Israel, are all more likely to consider voting for someone other than Obama."
The Jewish-American community was one of the strongest voting blocs to support President Obama in 2008. It will be interesting to see if the results of this poll are still relevant in 2012. As much as I hate to see politics play a part in the 'peace process', if politics causes us to support Israel in its efforts to continue to exist, I would be fine with that.
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