NEW YORK, 25 August 2004 — As Republicans prepare for their convention in New York City next week, pollsters and pundits are asking which presidential candidate has won the heart — and most importantly the vote and financial backing — of Arab and Jewish Americans.
Despite Bush’s reputation as what one Republican called “the best friend that Israel has ever had in the White House,” the president’s full-term effort to court Jewish Americans has failed, according to a new poll that shows him trailing Sen. John Kerry.
“The work the Bush administration has done over the last three years to reach out to Jewish voters has been largely unsuccessful,” said pollster Anna Greenberg, who conducted the poll for the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC).
This could set up an ironic double win, because polls show Kerry leading among Arab-Americans as well, a switch from their overwhelming support for Bush four years ago.
Believing George W. Bush would follow his father’s Mideast polices, Arab-Americans gave Bush their support in 2000. But four years later, many are repelled by his decision to launch the Iraq war and his support for the USA Patriot Act, not to mention his pro-Israeli stance.
“The anger among Arab-Americans toward Bush is palpable,” pollster John Zogby said recently after conducting a poll in Dearborn, Michigan, home to one of the largest Arab-American communities in the United States.
“John Kerry has fulfilled the main criterion Arab-Americans are looking for: He’s not George Bush,” pollster John Zogby recently told journalists. “There’s no doubt in my mind Kerry will get the lion’s share of their vote, and Bush will get around 25 percent.”
Some Democrats believe Arab-Americans have nowhere else to turn. “Arab-Americans for whom the relations between Israelis and Palestinians is the most important issue are going to be frustrated this cycle because neither camp is going to give them any light,” Democratic strategist Steve Rabinowitz recently told the media. “The rhetoric on both sides is going to be extremely pro-Israel.”
“Bush “lied and made commitments and promises that never came true and Republican Arab-Americans are completely disillusioned with the Bush campaign,” Ali Dagher, an Arab-American lawyer from Dearborn, Michigan, told journalists during the Democratic Convention last month.
“At this point, you can’t be certain people will vote for Kerry, either. How do you get that vote? The Democratic ticket has to do something to give an incentive (for Arab- Americans) to go the polls.”
