Newt Gingrich threw it all out there: the contentious claim that the Palestinians are a made-up people, Iran threatening a second Holocaust, Israel as a beacon.

The Republican Jewish audience lapped it up. But Gingrich, as grateful as he is for all the support he can get in Tuesday's primary election in Florida, was also courting a very different audience - one that is not Jewish and which worries many who are.

Florida has a relatively large Jewish population, accounting for more than 6% of the state's electorate given that nine out of ten are registered to vote. A few hundred turned out to see Gingrich address the Republican Jewish Coalition in Boca Raton on Friday afternoon.

Many were enthusiasts, including Rick Roth, a farmer.

"He actually has a well thought out policy on the economy. He's not talking in sound bites," he said. "I vote for who is the best candidate, not the one who can win. This electability issue is hogwash."

Roth also liked what he heard from Gingrich about Israel. The Republican candidate said the Palestinians are entitled to self-government - making no mention of a state or independence - only when they recognise Israel's right to exist, abandon a right of return to what is now Israel for Palestinian refugees and abandon hate speech against Jews.

Gingrich warned that if Iran gets a nuclear weapon it could lead to a second Holocaust, and he chided Obama for not confronting Tehran sufficiently strongly. He also said that the Arab spring is turning into an "Arab nightmare" which is only strengthening the threat from "radical Islam".

The Jewish voters in the room seemed happy enough to hear it but Roth said Gingrich's Israel policy made little difference to his decision to support him. Others agreed. They can hear much the same thing from any of the candidates with the exception of Ron Paul, who would cut off all foreign aid - including to the Jewish state.

Shirley Caro, wearing a badge reading "Obama, Oy Vey", an expression of dismay, said Gingrich talked too much about the Middle East and not enough about what he was going to do about America's massive debt.

"I can't vote for Romney. He flip flops. But I don't know what Gingrich is going to do. He didn't tell us," she said.

The Jewish community in the US leans heavily toward the Democrats. Close to 80% of Jewish voters supported Barack Obama in 2008. But that support eroded in the months after Obama came to power after he made a speech in Cairo reaching out to the Arab world and attempted to pressure the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in to halting the construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The Republicans sought to portray Obama as endangering Israel, accusing him of disrespecting the Jewish state and of "not being a friend of Israel".

Obama has also been criticised for failing to visit Israel as president, although he did go before he was elected to the White House.

Rabbi David Steinhardt, head of a congregation in Boca Raton for 18 years, said that all of that generated concern within the American Jewish community but those fears have largely fallen away.

"I don't think initially that Jewish voters were as in touch as a group with the nuances of the Cairo visit and speech. But I think over time they've come to understand what Obama was attempting to do," he said. "There's a greater sense that Obama is a supporter of Israel, and at the same time Obama had been pushing - and I think things have come to a standstill - for a two state solution, which is something that the Israeli administration has also gone on the record as supporting."

Steinhardt said that while the Jewish community is very protective of Israel, it sometimes feels as if politicians believe that is the only issue of concern.

"What we're seeing in the political conversation right now is that politicians go out of their way to talk about how supportive they are of Israel. Our politicians seem to outdo Israeli politicians in terms of their positions regarding considerations of Israel," he said. "My sense about the voters in my congregation is that they're sophisticated and that they're always concerned about Israel but Israel is not the only issue on which they vote. They're interested in other domestic issues. Policies regarding immigration are important to them. Issues around healthcare are very important to my congregation. There are a lot of seniors."

But Gingrich's vocal support of Israel has less to do with support from the Jewish community than the votes of a much larger group: Christian evangelicals, who are strongly supportive of Israel for theological reasons.

Many evangelical votes are up for grabs. Some have gravitated toward Rick Santorum because of concern among deeply religious people over Gingrich's history of adultery and divorces. He has sought to win over the waverers in part through virulent support of Israel.

That has included his deeply controversial claim that the Palestinians are an invented people, implying that they are not entitled to their own state.

That statement did not win favour among many Jews because it is a denial of the two state solution the Israeli government favours.

"He was historically accurate," said Nat Trayger, who runs a medical supply business. "Until the 1960s, they didn't identify with the name Palestinian. However they have created a people and that has to be recognised. I don't understand what Gingrich was trying to do."

But Gingrich's implicit denial of a Palestinian state did go down well with evangelicals who, among other things, believe that the Jewish state is entitled to claim all of the land identified as Israel in the Bible. It disturbs Steinhardt.

"One has to look at the evangelical position there and question what that support means. I have been in meetings with evangelicals where they speak about a greater Israel. They do not believe that any settlements (in the occupied territories) should be withdrawn and their position tends to be to the right of Netanyahu's government," he said. "They don't see coexistence among Palestinians, Muslims, Israelis, Jews, Christians. And that's a different language than the majority of the Jewish community is speaking. It's heavily driven by theology as opposed to political considerations."

Gingrich's outspoken positions on the Jewish state are also likely to have been influenced by the fact that he has received the backing of a vigorous Israel supporter, Sheldon Adelson, a casino magnate and multi-billionaire who has so far poured at least $10m into political adverts in support of the Republican contender. Adelson has donated heavily to Zionist groups, including Birthright Israel and One Jerusalem, an organisation working to keep the entire city in Israel's hands. He is a friend of Netanyahu.

Tellingly, when it came to questions from the audience to Gingrich at the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting, not one was about Israel.

Trayger said he cast his ballot in early voting for Santorum.

"I don't really understand Gingrich. On the one hand he says he's a conservative. On the other, his solutions are all big government," he said. "I voted for Santorum but I would not be unhappy if Romney wins. There are lots of issues with Gingrich. Santorum has a real clean personal life. I've been married a long time and I respect that. Gingrich has ethics issues. He seems to say very many different things. He says he was a "historian" for Freddie Mac. It's a reflection of his character. Israel has nothing to do with it."