Republican Jews' poll 'a hoax'

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 11:26 AM on November 29, 2006.

I'm pretty sure there's some important symbolism in the fact that a rigged poll for the Jewish Republicans was done by a gay man (Arthur J. Finkelstein), even if I can't figure out what it is.

In an effort to carry water for its party, the Republican Jewish Coalition conducted a post-election poll of Jews showing that a hulking 26.4% of Jews voted Republican. Wow. And that'd actually be an improvement.

That number stands in contrast to national polls showing Jewish support for Democrats up around 90% in the midterms.

So what accounts for the significant difference? Jennifer Siegel writes: "[The poll] bypassed Jews who never attend synagogue or do not associate with a major movement." Or: half of America's Jewish population.

The RJC like Joe Lieberman and a host of other right wing Jews, it should be noted, doesn't have problems breaking bread with anti-semites, so long as they support the most paranoid and militaristic elements in Israel.

Tagged as: gop, jews

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.