BRON : Last Update: 17/08/2000
Poll: 75% of U.S. Jews plan to vote for Kerry
By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz Correspondent
A poll conducted in the U.S. for the National Jewish Democratic Council shows that Republican Party expectations of a shift in Jewish voting patterns away from the Democratic Party are very misplaced.
The poll, which was released Monday, has 75 percent of American Jewry set to vote for Senator John Kerry (D-Mass) and only 22 percent for U.S. President George W. Bush in the November presidential elections.
"Karl Rove and the White House spent a lot of effort and money to prove that there is a realignment in the Jewish community, but it turns out to be a lot of smoke and no fire," said Ira Foreman, the NJDC director.
The poll was conducted by Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner, the polling and political consultancy group that has previously worked for Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak.
In 2000, Bush received only 19 percent of the Jewish vote, and the poll indicates that his position will only marginally improve in the coming vote. Republican analysts have been predicting that 30 percent, and perhaps as many as 40 percent, of American Jews would vote for Bush, ostensibly because of his strong support for the Israeli government.
Indeed, the poll shows that on questions regarding Israel, Bush does enjoy a relatively large amount of support among Jews, but only a third of them believe that Bush would be better for Israel than his challenger while two-thirds think that Kerry would be preferable to Bush on that issue. On domestic issues, Kerry wins support from more than 80 percent of American Jews.
The poll also finds that among those Jews who are saying they will vote for Bush, the percent who admit to be wavering is very high, compared to Kerry supporters, who are confident of their choice.
Few polls are conducted of Jews only, because of the difficulty in identifying them in random polls. This poll was conducted by making an appeal for respondents through the Internet to known Jewish population centers and then adjusting the results according to known national data.
en dan te weten dat Bush een zeer PRO israel beleid heeft gevoerd. 
Als hij herverkozen wordt, zal hij dan hieruit conclusies trekken ?