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Trump Receiving Historic Levels of Jewish Support in US Presidential Race, Poll Finds
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looks on as he holds a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, US, July 29, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Lindsay DeDario
US Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, currently holds a narrow lead with Jewish voters over her Republican opponent, former US President Donald Trump, in the 2024 presidential election, a new poll has found.
Jewish voters prefer Harris over Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee, by a margin of 52.7 percent to 45.9 percent, according to the survey conducted by pollster Richard Baris. The poll indicated a softening of support for Democrats among Jewish voters, potentially stemming from dissatisfaction over the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
Jews are a traditionally Democratic-leaning voting bloc. Since 1968, American Jews have supported the Democratic presidential nominee over the Republican nominee on average by a staggering margin of 71 percent to 26 percent, according to Jewish Virtual Library. Jewish voters supported incumbent US President Joe Biden over Trump by a margin of 68 percent to 30 percent in 2020. In 2016, 71 percent of Jewish voters supported Hillary Clinton and only 24 percent supported Trump.
Dwight Eisenhower was the last Republican to receive at least 40 percent of the Jewish vote in 1956.
“Jewish vote is very close. This is something we all need to keep an eye on,” Baris said Wednesday on his online show “People’s Pundit.”
Jewish voters “don’t trust Kamala Harris as much [as Joe Biden] apparently,” continued Baris, the director of Big Data Poll.
Baris suggested that Jewish voters could be upset with what he described as the Biden administration’s “anti-Israel policies,” potentially sparking a partial exodus among this voting bloc to the Republican Party.
“You gotta remember that even though a lot of the Jewish vote in this country is secular liberal, they still identify as Jewish. That vote is not going as well for Harris as it did for Joe Biden,” Baris added.
Though Biden has repeatedly voiced support for Israel’s right to self-defense, Harris is widely expected to take a more adversarial approach to the Jewish state should she win the election in November. Harris does not have the decades-long relationship with Israeli leaders that Biden has and maintains closer ties to further left-wing Democratic progressives, many of whom have increasingly called for the US to turn away — or at least adopt a tougher approach toward — Israel.
Harris reportedly urged the White House to be more “sympathetic” to Palestinians and take a “tougher” stance against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the war in Gaza. She also did not rule out “consequences” for Israel if it launched a large-scale military offensive to root out Hamas battalions in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, citing humanitarian concerns for the civilian population.
Harris initially called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza before Biden and, according to reports, White House aides forced her in March to tone down a speech that was deemed too harsh on Israel.
Earlier this month, Harris came under fire for skipping Netanyahu’s address to the US Congress to attend a convention for a historically black sorority. Later in the week, Harris met the Israeli premier and reaffirmed Israel’s right to pursue Hamas in Gaza but vowed she “won’t be silent” about Palestinian casualties.
Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) CEO Matt Brooks slammed Harris for not attending Netanyahu’s congressional address.
“Kamala Harris failed her first test to the Jewish community by choosing to attend a sorority luncheon rather than preside as president of the Senate while one of America’s most important allies address a congressional joint session in a time of war,” Brooks said.
Meanwhile, Trump received criticism this week for saying in an interview on Tuesday that Harris, who is married to a Jewish man, “doesn’t like Jewish people” and seemed to agree with a radio host who called second gentleman Doug Emhoff “a crappy Jew.”
Trump has often derided anti-Israel Jews and Jews who vote for Democrats.
Still, during Trump’s one term as president, he won over many supporters of the Jewish state, especially on the political right, by moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as part of Israel, and facilitating the Abraham Accords.
The post Trump Receiving Historic Levels of Jewish Support in US Presidential Race, Poll Finds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.