CiF Watch prompts correction to Economist claim about American Jewish views on Israel

We won’t bore you with the nitty-gritty of what it took to get the Economist to correct a false claim about Jewish American attitudes towards Israel, but suffice to say that the word “begrudging” seems apt in characterizing their willingness to acknowledge error.

As we noted in a post on Nov. 27, in an attempt to support their conclusion – in a story (Israel heads for a terrifying split, Nov. 25) about Israel’s opposition to the nuclear deal with Iran and the P5+1 – that Jerusalem may find itself “at loggerheads with a large fraction of American Jews”, there was this passage (which we took a screenshot of at the time):

However, when you actually open the hyper-link embedded in the text it’s clear that the ADL poll gauged the views of all Americans, NOT specifically American Jews.

If the Economist’s intent was to show that American Jewish support for Israel – in the context of the current crisis – has diminished, the poll cited (on the views, again, of ALL Americans) clearly did not demonstrate this.

Today, after a series of emails to editors at the magazine, the passage has finally been amended – and now reads:

An earlier poll by the Anti-Defamation League found that if Israel were to carry out a military strike against Iran, 48% of Americans think their country should take a “neutral” position, while just 40% would favour supporting Israel.

The bottom of the article now also includes the following:

We commend Economist editors on their decision to finally revise this unambiguously false claim.