On Jul 2, 2007, at 11:46 AM, Michael Smith wrote:
> On Monday 02 July 2007 10:59, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>> I suppose he thinks
>> this somehow benefits Israel
>
> This would appear to be the consensus view in the Looby, would it not?
Then the "Looby" is really at odds with those whom they purport to represent.
<http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci=26677>
February 23, 2007 Among Religious Groups, Jewish Americans Most Strongly Oppose War Opposition goes beyond Jewish Americans' political affiliations
by Jeffrey M. Jones GALLUP NEWS SERVICE
PRINCETON, NJ -- An analysis of Gallup Poll data collected since the beginning of 2005 finds that among the major religious groups in the United States, Jewish Americans are the most strongly opposed to the Iraq war. Catholics and Protestants are more or less divided in their views on the war, while Mormons are the most likely to favor it. Those with no religious affiliation also oppose the war, but not to the same extent that Jewish people do. The greater opposition to the war is not simply a result of high Democratic identification among U.S. Jews, as Jews of all political persuasions are more likely to oppose the war than non-Jews who share the same political leanings.
For this analysis, Gallup combined 13 surveys from the last two-plus years that measured both support for the Iraq war (using Gallup's "mistake for the U.S. to send troops to Iraq" question) and respondent religious affiliation, for a combined sample of more than 12,000 interviews. Across the time period these 13 surveys covered, an average of 52% of Americans opposed the war by saying the United States made a mistake to invade Iraq, and 46% favored the war by saying it did not make a mistake.
The table shows how Iraq war support breaks down among the religious groups for which there are sufficiently large sample sizes to provide stable estimates.
United States Made a Mistake in Sending Troops to Iraq, by Religious Affiliation, 2005-2007 Gallup Polls
Religious Preference
War War
a mistake not a mistake
All Americans 52 46 Protestants 48 49
Non-black Protestants 43 55
Black Protestants 78 18 Catholics 53 46 Jews 77 21 Mormons 27 72 No religion 66 33
Of these major religious groups, three show more opposition than support for the war:
Jewish people oppose the Iraq war by a better than 3-to-1 margin, 77% to 21%.
Americans without a religious preference are twice as likely to oppose (66%) as to support (33%) the war. Catholics are somewhat more likely to oppose (53%) than to support the war (46%).
On the other hand, Mormons and Protestants show more support than opposition to the war. Mormons are strongly in favor, as just 27% term the war "a mistake." Overall, Protestants are divided, with 48% opposed and 49% in favor. But black Protestants and non-black Protestants diverge in their views. Black Protestants -- who are overwhelmingly Democratic -- show strong opposition to the war, while among non-black Protestants, support for the Iraq war surpasses the majority level (55% say the war was not a mistake).
As has been well-established, war support is strongly influenced by one's political leanings -- Democrats overwhelmingly oppose the war while Republicans favor it by a similarly wide margin. One might assume that the greater war opposition among Jews is attributable to the group being overwhelmingly Democratic. In this sample, 52% of Jewish people identify as Democrats, and another 20% are independents who say they lean to the Democratic Party.
But a closer analysis of the data show that Jewish war opposition goes beyond their basic political leanings. Jewish people are more likely to oppose the war than non-Jews of the same political persuasion. For example, 89% of Jewish Democrats oppose the Iraq war, compared with 78% of all non-Jewish Democrats.
[...]