http://blogs.jta.org/ENTRY_PERMALINK_HERE/not-much-division-in-community-according-to-adl-poll/ Since Israel’s operation in Gaza began a little more than a month ago, there’s been some talk—fueled by criticism of the Jewish state’s actions by J Street and some other dovish groups—that American Jewish community opinion was not firmly behind the Jewish state’s actions. An Anti-Defamation League poll released Thursday indicates that was not the case. The survey found that 79 percent believed Israel’s response to the "current crisis in Gaza" was appropriate, with just 17 percent believing it was excessive. (The full wording of the question can be seen here.) And 81 percent of those surveyed said Hamas was "responsible for the recent escalation in violence," to just 14 percent who blamed Israel. Of course, one caveat must be mentioned: The ADL was not a disinterested observer in the Gaza crisis, strongly backing Israel’s actions. The poll did find 63 percent of American Jews backing an independent Palestinian state and 66 percent who approved of Israel’s 2005 decision to withdraw from Gaza. The telephone survey of 400 American Jewish adults was conducted Jan. 13-19 by the Marttila Communications Group, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent. The complete list of poll questions and results can be found here. Below is the ADL’s press release, with a breakdown of some results by denomination (where there were no huge differences). en-us efingerhut@jta.org Copyright 2009 2009-01-30T;03:42:00-05:00