Donald Trump has been gaslighted by the media into believing that he did not make strong gains in the Jewish community and that American Jews did not appreciate his unprecedented support for Israel because they do not care about Israel. Both are not true.
Trump won a historic 30.5% of the Jewish vote in the 2020 presidential election and 43% of the Jewish vote in the critical swing state of Florida. Trump carried Florida because the Jewish vote switched. Trump’s Jewish support was the largest for a Republican since 1988.
Trump’s gains among Jewish voters in Florida, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio, and Arizona must have terrified the Democrats. That is why they have spent so much time and effort trying to convince the Jews and Trump that the Jewish vote did not move towards Trump. As the Democrat party abandons its support for Israel, they want to convince Jews that Jews do not care about Israel.
The media have gaslighted Trump, who said in an interview released last week that American Jews ‘either don’t like Israel or don’t care about Israel” since the Jews voted for Biden rather than Trump.
The media are also gaslighting the Jews: manipulating statistics to convince Jews and Trump of a false narrative. From the recently published interview with the leftist Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, it appears that this leftist gaslighting has affected Trump’s understanding of the Jewish community and the election results.
The left is doing this with manipulative gaslighting polls to dupe Jews and the wider public. It appears that they have succeeded with Trump. The claim fueled by the left that Jews don’t widely support Israel is wrong, – and dangerous. Media outlets cite a poll done by the Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI), which they incorrectly label a non-partisan outfit.
But JEI is not non-partisan; it is a fiercely partisan organization with an agenda to gaslight Jews and the wider public. It is a spin-off of a Jewish Democratic organization. Haile Soifer is the registered agent of JEI. She’s also the Executive Director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDC). Not coincidentally, both JEI and the JDC share the same address in DC. (1440 G St NW, Washington DC 20005).
The JEI poll reported that “Israel is the lowest policy priority for Jewish voters.”
Honest polls can provide a useful picture of current trends. But polls can also be used as a tool for political manipulation. Dr. Alex Joffe, in a study for the Israeli think tank, the Besa Center, concluded that the JEI poll was “gaslighting of Jews by other Jews on behalf of the Democratic Party and its progressive causes is in keeping with longstanding Obama-Biden-era practice.”
Joffee points out:
The Obama administration pioneered the creation of the progressive echo chamber with ostensibly independent think tanks and communal organizations, such as J Street and NIAC, all of which were tied to prominent Democratic donors and dark money sources. The goal was to shape the information environment by regurgitating administrative talking points through studies and legitimizing them through polls. The Jewish Electorate Institute is another iteration.
The JEI poll seeks to counter/bury the uptick in Jewish support for Trump in strategic states, including Florida and Ohio. If the misleading, politically motivated JEI poll demonstrated the “basis” for Trump’s claim that the Jews do not support Israel, he has been deceived. That is the important story.
Other polls by unbiased organizations have found strong support among Jewish Americans for Israel. A Pew Research poll of Jewish Americans in 2020 found that among Jews of all ages, 58% feel very/somewhat attached to Israel. For Jews over the age of 50, 88% said that Israel was essential to what being Jewish means to them or is very important. Only 10% responded that Israel is not important to them. That latter number rose to 27% for American Jews under the age of 30. But for all Jews of all ages, a majority responded that Israel was important to them.
A 2021 Gallup study, “Americans’ Religion and Their Sympathies in the Middle East” analyzed Gallup polls over the years 2006-2013 compared to 2014-2021. It found:
Jews in the U.S. have been in the past, and continue to be, overwhelmingly sympathetic to Israel…. 94% of Republican Jews are sympathetic to Israel, more than to the Palestinians, compared with a slightly lower 87% of Democrats.
Support for Israel among Evangelicals is well known but according to the Gallup study, Trump is likely incorrect in saying that it is higher than among Jews. Gallup did not single out Evangelicals, but it did measure church attendance. The 2018-2021 data show that 73% of Protestants who attend services weekly are sympathetic to Israel compared to 62%-65% of those Protestants who seldom or never attend.
This is very strong support for Israel, but it is lower than the 87%-94% recorded for American Jews.
The Gallup and Pew results were confirmed by an American Jewish Committee 2021 survey of American Jewish opinion. As in the Pew poll, AJC found that 58% of respondents said that being connected to Israel is either very/somewhat important to their Jewish identity. Using the metaphor of a family, the poll found that 72% of respondents described Israeli jews as part of their family. And this is in a poll in which only 21% of the respondents said that they voted for Trump in the 2020 election.
The Left is gaslighting the public by manipulating data to show that support for Israel has faded among American Jews. This pernicious effort to make American Jews deny the reality of their own feelings has seemingly worked on Trump. It is important that he learn the truth, not the distortions in the mainstream media.
Carol Greenwald is chairman, Jews Choose Trump.
This column was originally published at American Thinker
The views expressed in guest columns are not necessarily the views or positions of the CCNS or its members.
