Israel doesn't swing Jewish voters

CNN) -- Mitt Romney is trying to cut into the considerable lead President Obama had among Jewish voters by showing that he is even more of a supporter of Israel than his rival.

After suggesting the Obama administration threw Israel "under the bus," Romney made an even stronger warning to Iran not to go nuclear, and pledged to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Romney is hardly the only one who believes that the Jewish vote swings to the candidate in presidential elections who is the most fervent supporter of Israel. The same position was given voice in a 2007 book by two highly regarded political scientists, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which suggests that Jews have undue influence over U.S. foreign policy by making campaign contributions, pressuring members of Congress, and by casting their votes to support Israel.

A controversy erupted in 2011-12 concerning "Israel Firsters," a term referring to American Jews who are said to promote Israeli policies to the point where they "put the interests of the Israeli right above everything else," as one writer put it.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/04/opinion/etzioni-jewish-voters/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular