Survey shows Obama position at odds with most Americans
By Bob Unruh, WorldNetDaily
Editor’s note: This is another in a series of WND/WENZEL Polls conducted exclusively for WND by the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies.
 Barack Obama |
A new survey reveals literally hundreds of millions of Americans have a strong affinity for Israel and believe the U.S. should intervene if Israel is attacked by Iran.
The poll for WND by Wenzel Strategies also documents that Christians, especially those who describe themselves as born-again believers, largely hold stronger feelings regarding Israel than do Jews.
The poll, a telephone survey conducted Feb. 9-15 with a resulting margin of error of 3.37 percent, showed 3 in 4 Americans agree with the statement that “Israel is the No. 1 target for destruction of Islamic radicals in the Middle East.”
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Fifty-five percent confirmed they agree with the belief that Israel is a “flawed nation-state” but still remains “the apple of God’s eye.”
Nearly the same majority said while Israel seeks peace with its neighbors, “its neighbors are generally unwilling to agree to peace with Israel.”
“This survey gives the unmistakable impression that, in yet another area, President Obama is out of step with the mindset of the American people,” said the analysis from Wenzel Strategies’ Fritz Wenzel. “This was a survey of all adults, which is a significantly more favorable audience for Obama than respondent samples of registered voters or likely voters, and yet American support for Israel far outstrips that shown by the Obama administration to date.”
Obama’s perspective on Israel was expected to come to head as early as this weekend, regarding a U.N. vote on a proposal to “condemn” Israel for its construction in the West Bank. The U.S. historically has opposed such political statements, but there were reports that this time, perhaps, the U.S. would abandon Israel.
“We are working with our partners in the Security Council, with our friends in the region, to find a consensus way forward that is consistent with our overall approach. There are a lot of rumors flying around and I’m not going to get into any specifics at this time,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
“A good example came just recently during the government crisis in Egypt, where the Obama administration was quick to push for the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, who had maintained a 30-year peace treaty with Israel. It is still unknown what the long-term fate of that landmark treaty will be, but it’s future is highly unlikely to be more beneficial to Israel, yet Israel security is a top priority for the U.S. public,” Wenzel’s analysis said.
“Obama’s inaction and inattentiveness to the Iranian nuclear weapons threat is another area in Middle East policy where he is at odds with Americans in general. This survey registers significant concern about Iranian threats against Israel and demonstrates an appetite for U.S. involvement to protect Israel in case of an imminent threat,” he said.
The results of the 20-question assessment confirmed, too, that those who self-identify as born-again Christians have a powerful affinity for Israel.
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To the question, “Agree or disagree: Israel is a flawed nation-state like others but remains, as the Bible says, the apple of God’s eye,” while 22.4 percent of those affiliating with the Jewish faith said they strongly agreed, 60 percent of those who identify as born-again Christian responded that they strongly agree. Another 21 percent said they somewhat agreed.
Other results:
- About 80 percent of born-again Christians disagreed with the statement that Israel “is an aggressor nation,” nearly the same as the 85 percent of Jews who held that opinion.
- Fifty-eight percent of the Jews said they agreed with the statement that the U.S. does not provide enough moral support to Israel, but more than 62 percent of the born-again Christians held that view.
- Thirty-nine percent of the Jews believe the U.S. is undermining Israel by pushing a Palestinian state, while almost 56 percent of the born-again Christians believe that.
- Fifty-one percent of the Jews believe the U.S. should make support of Israel the primary plank in Middle East policy, but more than 72 percent of born-again Christians hold that perspective.
- Some 22.4 percent of the Jews believe the U.S. will be judged by God according to the way it treats Israel, but 2 of 3 born-again Christians agreed with that statement.
- While 55.2 percent of Jews believe Americans should be very concerned about Israel’s national security, that figure was 71.1 percent for born-again Christians.
“The survey also shows most Americans believe Israel is under a continuing grave threat from Islamic radicals,” the analysis said.
According to the survey, 75 percent of all respondents in the survey said they believe Israel is the top target of Islamic radicals. Eighty-six percent said they are at least somewhat concerned about Israel’s national security – and 53 percent said they were “very concerned” about it.
Further, “71 percent said they believe the U.S. should support Israel if Israel engages in military action to counter a possible Iranian nuclear attack against Israel. And, while the U.S continues to wage two other heavy military actions in the region – Iraq and Afghanistan – 64 percent said they would favor using American military troops against Iran if Iran attempts a nuclear attack on Israel.”
The report continued, “Even as Iraq remakes itself as a fledgling democracy and Egypt struggles to figure out what its government might look like after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, 62 percent of survey respondents said they agree Israel is the only true pro-Western ally of the United States in the region. Among Republicans, 70 percent said as much, as did 68 percent of political independents, but just 50 percent of Democrats agreed.”
“There was striking partisan disagreement on the question of President Barack Obama’ pressuring Israel to stop building or repairing Jewish homes in and around Jerusalem. While 61 percent of Democrats approved of Obama’s stance, just 28 percent of Republicans felt the same way,” the analysis said.
See detailed results of survey questions:
- Agree or disagree: Israel is the only true pro-Western ally of the U.S. in the Middle East.
- Agree or disagree: Israel is the No. 1 target for destruction of Islamic radicals in the Middle East.
- Agree or disagree: Israel is a flawed nation-state like others but remains, as the Bible says, the apple of God’s eye.
- Agree or disagree: Israel seeks peace with its neighbors, but its neighbors are generally unwilling to agree to peace with Israel.
- Agree or disagree: Israel is an aggressor nation equally responsible for Middle East conflict with its neighbors.
- Agree or disagree: Israel is unwilling to compromise with its neighbors.
- Agree or disagree: Israel is an aggressor nation in the Middle East and must be contained.
- Agree or disagree: The U.S. does not provide enough moral support to Israel.
- Agree or disagree: The U.S. is undermining Israel by pushing a Palestinian state.
- Agree or disagree: The U.S. should make support of Israel the primary plan in Middle East policy.
- Agree or disagree: The U.S. will be judged by God according to the way it treats Israel.
- Agree or disagree: The U.S. should be neutral in all Middle East conflicts.
- Agree or disagree: The U.S. supports Israel too much.
- Agree or disagree: The U.S. should cut all of its support of Israel.
- How concerned should Americans be about Israel’s national security?
- Should the U.S. support Israel if it uses military force against Iran’s nuclear program?
- If it becomes clear that Iran is preparing to attack Israel with nuclear weapons, should the U.S. use its military forces to intervene to try to stop the attack on Israel?
- If it becomes clear that Iran is preparing to attack Israel with nuclear weapons, should the U.S. use its nuclear weapons to intervene to try to stop the attack on Israel?
- Do you approve or disapprove of Barack Obama’s pressuring Israel to stop building or repairing Jewish homes in and around Jerusalem, the nation’s capital?
- Overall, how would you rate President Obama’s handling of the situation in Egypt?
- Here are the complete results
Read more: See who likes Israel more than the Jews! http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=265261#ixzz1EbhHMZZF
I would not hold Lapin up as n authority of Judaism. He is a corrupted rabbi supported and funded by the most right-wing billionaire antisemites.
He is making big bucks now and supported and endowed by one or more of the Mellon foundations. These are billionaire rednecks from the east. check it out!
This Christian rendering of Jeremiah’s prophecy of a “new covenant,” however, is an extraordinary reconstruction of the prophet’s own words. Jeremiah 31:31-34 is not a prophecy that occurred 2,000 years ago, or any time in the past. Rather, it is a prophecy that will be fulfilled in the future messianic age. Read the whole thing and learn something, if you dare!!!
The fact that Jeremiah 31:31-34 begins with the prophet addressing both the “House of Israel and the House of Judah” clearly indicates that Jeremiah is speaking to a restored and fully ingathered Jewish people. This, however, was not at all the case at the time when Christians claim the new covenant was fulfilled in Jesus’ death . . . quite the contrary. During the Christian century there was no House of Israel in existence because Assyria had exiled the Kingdom of Israel more than 700 years earlier (approx. 732 B.C.E.). Moreover, in the first century the Jewish people were spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. Thus, even the “House of Judah” was not all in the Promised Land during the Christian century.
In short, the era of the new covenant has not yet arrived. Rather, Jeremiah’s prophecy addresses a future messianic age when the entire Jewish people — both Judah and Israel — will be restored together in their rightful place, the land of Israel (Ezekiel 37:15-22).
The above verse reveals that the age of the new covenant will be realized during an epoch of the universal knowledge of God. It will occur when no one will have to teach his neighbor about God, “for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them . . . .” Did this occur at the time of the Christian century nearly 2,000 years ago, or at any time since?
he Hebrew word brit (covenant) in Jeremiah 31:31 does not mean a Bible or refer to a new salvation program or Torah. The word brit always refers to a promise or a contract. This covenant was made with the Jewish people while they were still in the desert before they were brought into the Promised Land.
These four verses in Jeremiah 31:31-34 are part of an ongoing theme repeated throughout the Book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s unique literary motif is to contrast the redemption of the children of Israel from Egypt with their final redemption in the messianic age — always vividly illustrating how the latter will far outshine the former. In Jeremiah 23:7-8, the prophet makes this clear when he proclaims,
Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when men shall no longer say, “As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” but, “as the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where He had driven them.” Then they shall dwell in their own land.
In the 31st chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet continues to contrast the exodus from Egypt with the messianic age. He therefore foretells that unlike the exodus from Egypt when the Jewish people were brought into the land of Israel only to be exiled centuries later because they broke their original covenant as a result of their faithlessness, in the messianic age, the Jewish people will enter into a “new covenant” when they will be permanently restored to their land, never to be exiled again.
As was declared by every prophet, the covenant that God has with the Jewish people is eternal. No words in the Christian Bible or interpolation of the Jewish scriptures can ever change this eternal oath. The prophet Isaiah proclaimed this vow more than 2,700 years ago,
They fish (“fishers of men” – Mark 1:17) for weak targets – the Jewish ones placed high in their trophy cabinets. You don’t know them very well.
I am a bit leery of the results of the above survey, however.
I think most Americans support Israel, but not to the point of going to war for her. Americans are in a very isolationist mood right now. The overwhelming sentiment I hear is one of “bring the boys home”, and let the chips fall where they may in the rest of the world.
Laura, I wouldn’t write off Ron Paul. I tell you, he is Saudia’s “plan B” insurance policy against Obama. He has a lot of money, and he’s getting a lot of positive “spin” in the Saudi whore media these days, who barely mention – if at all – his more distasteful aspects. The Atlantic Monthly just did a big positive write up on him, and I see him being reported on in glowing terms elsewhere.
Not only am I sure he’ll run, I’m also sure he’ll be one of the last three candidates standing during the primaries. I tend not to think he’ll get the nomination, but he’ll come close, and I don’t rule out him getting it. We’re in for another economic crash, and his radical economic ideas and isolationist views might have great appeal (see above). If someone with Obama’s background could be presented as “mainstream” by most of the media, so can Paul, if they choose to (or more properly, if their Saudi pimps tell them to).
We have to be on our guard against Paul. Keeping him at bay may require real effort on the part of our community. Don’t assume he’ll fall by they wayside as a “fringe” candidate. He won’t.
Arnold Harris,
Well said. Couldn’t have put it better myself.
The rest of you beating up on him:
I’m not exactly a religious scholar, but the last time I checked, it is a basic tenet of Jewish religious culture NOT to seek converts. To me, it logically flows from this that we should refrain from denigrating other religions, unless they represent a mortal threat to us (e.g., Islam as it is practiced by hundreds of millions today).
Are you all so insecure with your religious identity that you have to throw obnoxious invective at Christians?
I have evangelical friends, too. None as yet have tried to convert me, but if they do, my response will be similar to Mr. Harris’.
A dedicated Zionist friend of mine, who left the U.S. for Israel after graduating high school, who is an ordained rabbi, who fought in the ’73 war, has plenty of evangelical friends, too. One even offered him a large sum of money to convert. He laughed it off, as would I in such a circumstance. If he can appreciate their friendship and good intentions, I think all of you can, too.
F***ing jeeeeezuz! They can’t keep their paws off of us.
Here’s a hint, dead Jew on a stick worshiper: also read verse 35.
More details here.
Thanks for the opportunity!
To Arnold Harris:
The one new man united Jew and gentile!
But let my Jewish friend consider Jeremiah 31:31-34. If doing our Jewish thing were sufficient forever, why would G-d be promising a new covenant with Israel? Without the shedding of blood there is no atonement for sin.
Stay tuned, the King is coming. As Rabbi Daniel Lapin says, “My first question to the m’schiah will be ‘So, is this your first trip to Israel?'”
In the meantime, both Jew and Christian can stand united in being watchful, ready and faithful as G-d is glorified in his faithfulness to Israel! Jew and Christian both are waiting for the coming Jewish king, we differ only in whom we are expecting! There must remain Jews who will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven on earth…in flesh and blood, who will marry and have children through the righteous age. It is for this reason that Jews are not condemned to hell for not being Christians today…G-d has another idea.
Even Paul says, “All Israel will be saved!” Romans 11:26
25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:
“The deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. (this is from Isaiah 53 and Jeremiah 31)
27 And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”
CUFI and CUFI on campus are Israel’s Christian allies, with no guile or hidden agenda of “converting” Jews.
The events of our day are breathtaking. They are terrifying to those who have no hope based on faith in G-d’s promises to Israel.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 “The days are coming,” declares the L-RD,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the L-RD.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the L-RD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their G-d,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the L-RD,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the L-RD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
SF, you generalize a little too much.
I’m a white Jewish conservative American. I have a trimmed beard and the last time I wore a suit was to my daughter’s wedding last June. But if my Bible-focused fundamentalist evangelical Protestant Christian friends want to give more support to Israel than any of us expect from all those bleeding heart Moslem-loving liberal Jews, I’ll be the first guy in our rural community to march down the road singing “Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war”.
And am I worried about all those Christians trying to proselytize our relative handful of Jews? Hell no. I just tell them:
“Sure, Jesus was a Jew. Except he probably called himself Yeshua, and you don’t even know his rightful name. Anyway, he’s been dead for almost 2000 years, and meantime, Am Yisrael chai. So you go do your Christian thing tomorrow, while we make up a minyan to do our Jewish thing today. And no, I’m not concerned about falling into a lake of burning sulphur, or whatever, just because he just isn’t going to be my m’shiach.” (Works like a charm every time.)
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Why do some here insist on spinning positive news into negative?
The Republicans support Israel because it is the morally right thing to do. Ron Paul has fringe support and most conservatives denounce his stance on foreign policy issues.
America: Out of many, many:
Europe, on paper at least, is fighting back against multi-culturalism (they mean islam, of course, but will not say so out loud) as a failure.
In contrast, in America, multi-culturalism is already so far advanced that it no longer makes any sense to speak about a “unified America”. America is fast heading towards majority non-white status. The two largest states (California and Texas) are already majority non-white (and a Republican cannot become President without winning Texas).
When you look at the “Republican Party”, you see almost all white christian conservatives, mostly men with short well-groomed haircuts wearing suits. That contrasts with “Democrats” who consist of white-hating white liberals, white-hating blacks, and gringo-hating legal and illegal mexicans.
So what does that say about “American” support for Jewish Israel? The youngest, most liberal Democrats hate Jewish Israel, while the older ones still like it a bit. The Republicans hate Democrats, and so most of them support Jewish Israel in order to spite the Democrats, but that blanket support is fading (look at Ron Paul). Blacks mostly dislike Israel. Latinos appear to be either indifferent or hostile.
The trends in America are straightforward: permanent majority non-white, permanent Republican minority, and loss of support for Jewish Israel. (And this is coupled with a lower standard of living and ever-shrinking world influence.)