As the Biden administration seeks to re-enter the failed 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a new survey from the nation’s largest pro-Israel group gives cause for pause.
In a survey of 800 people conducted between April 26 and April 29 by GS Strategy Group, 40% of respondents self-identified as Democrats, 34% as Republicans, and 20% as independents. Out of that dataset, 65% of respondents said that the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign, which has deprived Iran of funding to support terrorism and other malign activities, should remain in place. Democrats support that stance by a 31-point margin, while Republicans do so by 66 points and independents by 43 points.
In the survey, commissioned by Christians United for Israel and shared exclusively with the Washington Examiner, when asked to choose between the United States renewing the 2015 nuclear accord or maintaining sanctions against Iran, 56% favor keeping the sanctions.
One of the criticisms behind the nuclear agreement was that it was not submitted to the Senate as a treaty. Obviously, former President Barack Obama did not do so since he knew he would not have the required two-thirds majority to approve it. That bears note here because according to the poll, 69% of Democrats favor sending any restored deal to the Senate for ratification. 61% of both Republicans and independents share that sentiment.
Isn’t it interesting that more Democrats than Republicans appear to favor sending any deal to the Senate? After all, virtually all congressional Republicans insisted on this in 2015, while most congressional Democrats were the opposite camp.
Finally, the poll suggests that by a margin of nearly 3 to 1, the public opposes the Biden administration’s April announcement that it would restore hundreds of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to the Palestinians. Although the funds will not go to the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinians have repeatedly demonstrated that they are not interested in peace with Israel. The poll demonstrates that most voters comprehend this rejection.
Democrats favor suspending U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority, which rewards terrorists and their families, by 27 points, or more than half of all Democrats. Conservatives and centrists back a suspension by 73% and 54%, respectively.
Although polls usually should be taken with a grain of salt, this poll was comprehensive and scientific.
“Our practice is to call a list of registered voters nationally, and when we reach that specific person we’re looking for, we match them back to the voter file,” said GS Strategy Group partner Robert Jones. “We control for gender, age, ethnicity, and geography to make sure that the sample is representative of a general election audience.”
This survey suggests the Biden administration might want to listen to the voters. A plurality does not want to undo the status quo.
Jackson Richman is a journalist in Washington, D.C. Follow him @jacksonrichman.
