The annual American Jewish Committee poll of American Jews shows a decrease in support for a U.S. strike on Iran should diplomacy not end its suspected nuclear weapons program.
According to the poll released Oct. 28, 52 percent of American Jews favor such a strike — 24 percent strongly and 28 percent somewhat.
In last year’s poll, 64.1 percent of respondents said they would support such a strike — 28 percent strongly and 36.1 percent somewhat.
There was a smaller drop in support for an Israeli strike: 67 percent this year as opposed to 72.5 percent last year, almost within the poll’s margin of error of 5 percentage points.
The poll also showed a drop in confidence in how President Barack Obama is handling national security, although he still commanded strong majority support.
His score of 67 percent this year fell from 76.8 percent a year ago.
The online poll of 1,034 American Jews was conducted between Sept. 30 and Oct. 15 by KnowledgePanel, owned by the GfK group. — jta