Most American Jews oppose the U.S.-Israeli military operations against Iran, according to a poll released on Monday.
The Jewish Electorate Institute found that 55% of Jewish respondents said that they opposed the war, 32% approved and 13% were undecided.
When asked for a more detailed breakdown of their feelings about the stated objectives of the conflict, a similar number of Jews (31%) said that they supported action against Iran, because the Islamic Republic cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, and 41% said that they were opposed, “because we should not go to war without clear provocation” and objectives.
Some 23% described themselves as “torn,” because “Iran is a threat to peace” but “this is not the way to handle it.”The poll of 800 registered American Jewish voters largely conforms with polls of the general American public, which have found that a majority of Americans oppose the war against Iran, with sharp partisan divisions between Republicans and Democrats.
The Jewish Electorate Institute survey saw a similar partisan divide among Jews, as well as a denominational divide. Among Orthodox Jews, 83% approve of the conflict against Iran while 67% of Reform Jews and 56% of self-described non-denominational Jews disapprove. A plurality of Conservative Jews, 48%, say that they disapprove of the war.
Jews are more united in the view that U.S. President Donald Trump should have sought legislative authorization before the start of hostilities, with 73% saying the president should have gone to Congress and 22% saying he was right to act without doing so.
Most American Jews (54%) also say that they fear that U.S.-Israeli cooperation in the war “will be a long-term problem prompting concerns about the role of Israel and American Jews in U.S. foreign policy.”
Some 32% said that they view the joint operation positively, because it “will be a more effective operation and more likely to accomplish shared goals.”
The survey was conducted from March 13-23 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
