J-Street commissioned a national poll showing that Republicans and the Tea Party movement have approval ratings among Jewish voters of 21 percent and 19 percent, respectively. So even in a Republican wave year, Jews unsurprisingly aren't very exciting about a party so reliant on Christian identity politics. Even in Pennsylvania, the Israel-oriented attack ads against Senate candidate Joe Sestak didn't give Republicans much headway among Jewish voters, who cast 79 percent of their votes for the Democrat.
The truth is, though, that Israel-oriented attack campaigns aren't really aimed at Jewish voters so much as they are aimed at conservative Christians anxious about terrorism and who imagine themselves as having some kind of religious/cultural kinship with Jews. They also blur relevant distinctions between violent Islamist groups in a way that negatively affects policy-making.
