The vast majority of American Jews are opposed to any peace agreement requiring Israel to return to the 1967 borders, a new survey has revealed. Following Obama's Middle East speech in May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress and issued a stern rebuke of the president's call. "Israel will not return to the indefensible lines of 1967," he said, mincing no words. The borders that existed before The Six-Day War, he said, were "indefensible." "Israel on the 1967 lines would be only nine miles wide. So much for strategic depth," Netanyahu said. According to the poll, 88 percent of the American Jewish community agrees with Netanyahu's own demand, which he issued in his speech to Congress and repeated in a similar speech made to AIPAC the following day: that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The polling audience also expressed a lack of clarity as to whether or not Obama is playing favorites in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Not everyone polled believed the president had a certain bias, but of those who did, 61 percent said that his bias is in favor of the Palestinians. Sixty-five percent of the American Jews queried said they had a favorable or somewhat favorable opinion of Netanyahu, as compared with 20 percent who expressed a negative opinion of the Israeli prime minister. The survey also found that American Jews hold the issue of Israel very close to their hearts. A full 93 percent expressed concern about a potential attack on Israel, particularly from countries such as Iran, whose president has openly called for its destruction. And despite widespread international support, 54 percent of those polled said the so-called "Arab Spring" protests sweeping the Middle East and North Africa are more dangerous for Israel than they are beneficial. The poll also echoed a persistent problem for Obama: his eroding support amongst the American Jewish public. In 2008, 79 percent of American Jews voted for Obama, but today, only 43 percent said they would vote for him again in 2012, while 63 percent expressed support for the job he has done so far as president. Among the adults polled, 48 percent said they would consider voting for another candidate. As to whether or not Obama will make good on his promise to veto the unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood at the United Nations, opinions were split down the middle. The declaration itself is opposed by 81 percent of American Jews. The survey had a margin of error of +/- 4 percent, at a 95 percent confidence interval.
The poll, conducted in late June by Secure America Now, an advocacy organization that purports to "help protect [its] great nation's borders," queried 600 American Jews.
Of those polled, 81 percent took issue with U.S. President Barack Obama's recent call to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians based on the 1967 borders with "mutually-agreed upon swaps."
Much of the decline can possibly be attributed to the fact that 67 percent of those polled expressed concern about what Obama's policies toward Israel would be were he re-elected. Regarding his current Israeli policies, 46 percent said they did not endanger Israel's security, while 38 percent said they did.
