Wednesday, February 06, 2008
AJC's Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion
Except for two minor references to it in a post on another subject, I didn't really write much about the American Jewish Committee's annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, the results of which were released last December. And I'm not really going to write much about the survey today but I will provide links below to two important analyses of the survey results.
Here's one comment though: Jim Lobe writes, "US Jews appear to have become more opposed ... to the US carrying out a military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities" but I think it is important note that there is good reason to believe that something else is driving this apparent decline in support. With the rise in awareness that the US invasion of Iraq was in no small part orchestrated by and for Israel and American Jews, particularly the neocons (who are not all Jewish), has come a concerted effort at spin control.
In the case of Iran, in 2006, Israeli and US Jewish leaders clearly told Bush to soft pedal the association between American military operations against Iran (present and future) with Israel. They didn't tell him not to attack Iran on behalf of Israel, they just told him not to be so darn obvious about it. As the Jewish Daily Forward reported: When asked how he thinks Jewish groups should pursue the Iran issue, [Israeli Prime Minister] Olmert reportedly implied that he would prefer a low profile ..." Such psychological operations are known as hasbara--the Zionist war on truth.
Here's one comment though: Jim Lobe writes, "US Jews appear to have become more opposed ... to the US carrying out a military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities" but I think it is important note that there is good reason to believe that something else is driving this apparent decline in support. With the rise in awareness that the US invasion of Iraq was in no small part orchestrated by and for Israel and American Jews, particularly the neocons (who are not all Jewish), has come a concerted effort at spin control.
In the case of Iran, in 2006, Israeli and US Jewish leaders clearly told Bush to soft pedal the association between American military operations against Iran (present and future) with Israel. They didn't tell him not to attack Iran on behalf of Israel, they just told him not to be so darn obvious about it. As the Jewish Daily Forward reported: When asked how he thinks Jewish groups should pursue the Iran issue, [Israeli Prime Minister] Olmert reportedly implied that he would prefer a low profile ..." Such psychological operations are known as hasbara--the Zionist war on truth.
- "US Jews tilt rightwards on Israel" by Jim Lobe
- "American Jews on War and Peace: What Do the Polls Tell Us and Not Tell Us?" by James Petras
Labels: Iran, Iraq, Israel, US politics
