Posted at 08:25 AM on 09/30/09

Today, the American Jewish Committee released their Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion.

As has been the case in the past, a clear majority of American Jews (58%) do not believe that "Israel [should be willing] to compromise on the status of Jerusalem as a united city under Israeli jurisdiction" even "in the framework of a permanent peace with the Palestinians." This bottom line is true across all the community's denominations (Orthodox: 77%, Conservative: 65%, Reform: 60% opposed a compromise on Jerusalem).

Also striking, is the Survey's findings that those polled disagreed with "the Obama Administration's call for a stop to all new Israeli settlement construction by 51% to 41%. Again, this was the majority view across all the denominations (Orthodox: 74%, Conservative: 62%, Reform: 46% (to 45% approving)).

Notable too are attitudes toward President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

When asked: "Do you approve or disapprove of the Obama Administration's handling of U.S.-Israel relations?" 54% approved and 32% disapproved. One could have expected the Orthodox to be the outlier here - and indeed, 70% of Orthodox respondents disapproved of Obama's policies. But even among the other groups, the finding that 54% of Conservative respondents and 59% of Reform respondents is a significant shortfall from a rate of more than 80% among those who voted for Mr. Obama in the 2008 election.


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