American Jews disapprove of the nuclear deal with Iran, and overwhelmingly reject the deal when presented with more information on it, a new poll has found.
The poll, which is the most extensive survey of American Jews and their views on the Iran nuclear deal to date, showed that 47 percent of respondents oppose the nuclear deal, with 44 percent in favor. But when given further background on the deal and its implications, that margin jumped to 58 percent disapproval and only 30 percent approval. The poll was produced on behalf of The Israel Project, which publishes The Tower.
Earlier today, Algemeiner broke excerpts of the poll earlier, comparing it to less rigorous polling data about the Jewish American community that has been circulating lately. In addition to showing significant opposition to the deal, today’s poll shows, in the words of Algemeiner, “that the more [American Jews] know about it, the less they like it.”
The survey of 1,034 people was conducted by Olive Tree Strategies on behalf of pro-Israel advocacy group The Israel Project. It claims a margin of error of 3 percent, and is the most extensive yet to be conducted on the issue. It comes as a wide array of U.S. Jewish groups have announced opposition to the deal, which is believed to endanger Israel and U.S. security. …
Speaking to The Algemeiner about the poll, Omri Ceren, managing director of press and strategy at The Israel Project, said, “The more that Jewish Americans learn about the details of the Iran deal, the more they believe that Congress should reject it.”
According to Ceren, the “poll shows that when you educate Jewish Americans about the downsides of the deal, which ultimately involve funding and arming the Iranian regime, they end up deciding that the costs are not worth the very unlikely benefits.”
TIP’s poll surveyed 1,034 more than twice as many respondents as other recent polls of the American Jewish community.
While nearly 60 percent of respondents approved of President Barack Obama’s overall performance, 49 percent disapproved of his handling of foreign policy (compared to 44 percent approval). Respondents disapproved of his managing of the nuclear issue by a margin of 52 to 42 percent.
Respondents wanted Congress to reject the deal by a 45 to 40 percent margin. But when arguments from the White House in favor of the deal, and from opponents of the deal, were presented to respondents, support for rejecting the deal rose to 51 percent. And once specific concerns about the deal were introduced to the survey, only 30 percent still supported approving the deal, while 58 percent wanted Congress to reject the deal and not lift sanctions on Iran.
The poll showed that the top two concerns about the deal are the lifting of the arms embargo in eight years, which will allow Iran to acquire ballistic missiles that are needed only as a delivery system for nuclear weapons, and the release of $100 to $150 billion in frozen funds, which would allow Iran to give even more support to international terror.
The polling data is available here. A series of charts explaining the polling results are available here.
[Photo: Associated Press / YouTube ]