Worthy Christian News Blog » The Polarization of the Jewish Vote

As I read through the polling results of the election, there’s a huge disparity between Jews living in the U.S. and Jews living in Israel.

In the United States, Jews overwhelming voted for Barack Obama by a 3 to 1 margin.

The majority of Jewish voters in the US presidential election voted for the Democratic Party’s candidate, and now US president-elect, Barack Obama, Wednesday’s segmentation of the votes revealed.

According to the data, 78% of the Jewish voters in the US lent their vote to Obama while only 21% voted for his opponent, Republican Senator John McCain. - Source: YNet News

However, American Jews living in Israel overwhelming backed John McCain by a 3 to 1 margin.

American citizens who voted in the U.S. presidential elections via absentee ballots from Israel overwhelmingly favored Sen. John McCain, according to exit polls released Thursday. Seventy-six percent said they voted for the Republican candidate, while only 24 percent voted for the Democrat Barack Obama. - Source: Ha’aretz

If Israel had voted in the Presidential election, they would have voted for John McCain over Barack Obama.

The survey found that given the right to vote in the US, 46.4% of Israelis would vote for the Republican nominee, John McCain. Thirty-four percent would vote for Democratic nominee Barack Obama, and 18.6% remain undecided.

Almost half of those polled (48.6%) believe McCain would better impact Israel, while 31.5% thought the country would better benefit from Obama’s leadership.

The poll found McCain to be Israel’s best bet concerning Iran as well. Over half (52.5%) believe he possesses the skills needed to deal with the security threat the country poses to Israel, more so than Obama, who has gained the confidence of just 27.6% of those polled. Source: Ynet News

So now we’re seeing the huge differences between how Jews view the world in the United States and in Israel. Perhaps it’s because Jews living in Israel see on a daily basis the security threat whereas Jews in America have been lulled into a false sense of security.  Whatever the case, it’s obvious that within the Jewish population there’s a huge polarization occurring.

Until next time…