Amid Israeli Election Chatter, 70% Want Right-Wing Rule
Image by getty images
JERUSALEM (JTA) — With talk of elections in the air, a new survey found that 70 percent of Israelis want a right-wing or center-right government.
According to the latest monthly Peace Index, published Tuesday by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, only 24 percent of the country prefers a left-wing or center-left government. The survey included 500 Jewish and 100 Arab adults and had a 4.1 percent margin of error.
A coalition crisis over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition the creation of a more independent public broadcaster was averted this week. But the prime minister, who heads a staunchly right-wing government, remains under investigation for corruption, and many in Israel expect elections sooner than later.
Even many of those who want a government that tilts toward the political left do not expect to get one, the survey found. Fully 81 percent of Jews said they think a right-wing or center-right government is likely to be elected, compared to just 8 percent who said they see a left-wing or center-left government coming to power.
Among Arab Israelis, 58 percent said they want a left-wing government, but only 10 percent predicted this would happen if elections were held in the near future.
A series of polls in recent months have shown Yair Lapid, the head of the centrist Yesh Atid party, challenging Netanyahu for the premiership in snap elections. Known to read the public mood, Lapid last week said he would try to form a national unity government if given the opportunity.
Public support for the political status quo may reflect relative optimism about the country’s security situation, which half of Jews deem good or very good, according to the Peace Index. Some 35 percent say its “so-so,” and just 14 percent say its bad or very bad. Diplomatically, 32 percent of Jews says things are good or very good, 38 percent say they are so-so and 26 percent say they are bad or very bad.
The survey also found Israelis generally unworried about U.S. President Donald Trump’s invitation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House. Some 75 percent of Jews and 88 percent of Arabs in Israel said they do not see this as a negative development. Trump has also invited Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to the White House as part of an apparent attempt to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Netanyahu last week enacted new restrictions on settlement building in as a goodwill gesture to Trump. Pro-settlement leaders have so far reacted with restraint.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
