J Street Poll Proves Orthodox Jews Are Mostly Idiots

J Street just came out with a really interesting and thorough poll of American Jewish voting patterns and their thoughts on the upcoming elections. Most of the survey was taken to show that Jews who support a peaceful solution in the Middle East and a two state solution in Israel and Palestine are in the majority, something that was brought up multiple times during the Brit Tzedek conference that I attended (you can see me in the video/conference report a bunch of times). This is a point that is very important to pro-Israel pro-peace groups like J Street and Brit Tzedek because by showing that they are the majority in Jewish political discourse, they have better leverage in trying to a build a movement among the national Jewish community.
Some interesting findings:

• 90% of American Jews are dissatisfied with the Bush administration as opposed to 76% nationally.
• 61% of American Jews believe Bush's Middle East policy has made Israel less secure.
• 81% trust that Israel would not agree to a peace deal that endangers its security and support any agreement Israel makers with its Arab neighbors.
• Compared with previous elections, the Jewish vote for Obama as the democratic nominee is the lowest it's been in a long time. According to the poll, 58% said they were definitely voting for Obama, in contrast to approximately 80% for Gore and Clinton and 76% for Kerry.
• 51% have a negative impression of Rev. John Hagee and CUFI while only 19% wouldn't mind burning in Christian hell while all the Evangelicals float up to heaven during the Rapture as long as they can build their settlements in the West Bank had a positive impression.
• And my favorite statistic - presidential vote by religious denomination: Reform is 70% Obama, Conservative is 56% Obama, Unaffiliated/other is 67% Obama, and Orthodox is 77% McCain.

GRRRR!! Why is Orthodoxy so overwhelmingly conservative?! Where does it say in the halacha that you have to be trigger happy and hate Arabs?
It is really difficult trying to be observant but always running into this polarization: You are either unorthodox and liberal or you are observant and right-wing, with few exceptions. I don't understand why it has to be this way. Tikkun and the NSP are supposed to be the exception, the "spiritual left". But that's exactly what they are - spiritual. There are no Orthodox Jews in the NSP (and I wouldn't blame them. It's tough to take your observance seriously when everyone else is singing Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu as a spiritual mantra, shaking a tambourine, and reading Kabbalah self-help books). I pray that one day I'll find a community to live in where I can be strengthened by both their faith in Torah (albeit a critical one) and activity in liberal politics.



By the way, I am thinking about changing the name of my blog to Bein Hashmashot. Jerusalén is just my nom de guerre in capoeira, it doesn't really have anything to do with my blog except for being the Portuguese pronunciation of Jerusalem (I got that name because, of cooas, I'm the token religious Jew in the class). If I do make the change, I'll explain the significance of bein hashmashot (twilight) when it happens.