Yair Lapid
Yair LapidKobi Richter/ TPS

The Guttman Center's Israeli Voice Index on Wednesday published a report showing a rise in the number of Israelis who are pessimistic regarding the future of Israel's democracy, and 28% of Israelis support holding new elections.

Over half of Israelis (54%) are pessimistic regarding the future of Israel's democratic government, while 38% are optimistic. Analysis of this statistic shows that among Jews, only a small percentage of leftists (14%) and centrists (19%) are optimistic, compared to most rightists (54%).

Regarding Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's performance in various areas, half (51%) of Israelis gave a negative review of his personal and moral behavior. Among LIkud voters, 67% had positive views of Netanyahu. Fifty-nine percent of Shas voters and 52% of UTJ voters also gave Netanyahu a positive score, compared with just 27% of Joint Arab List voters and 20% of Yamina voters.

Among Yisrael Beytenu, Blue and White, and Yesh Atid voters, just 9%, 4%, and 3%, respectively, gave Netanyahu positive reviews.

Just less than half of those interviewed (45%) said that Netanyahu's management of the coronavirus crisis was not good or horrible, while 56% had a positive opinion on how Netanyahu manages security issues.

When asked about whether management of the coronavirus outbreak should be transferred to the Defense Ministry and IDF, 63% of Jews supported the move, while just 32% of Arabs did.

Regarding the possibility of fourth elections, 60% of Israelis voiced opposition to dissolving the Knesset, while just 28% supported it.

An analysis of this statistic shows that 50% of Yesh Atid-Telem voters support new elections, followed by 44% of Joint Arab List voters, and 37% of Meretz voters. Among Yisrael Beytenu voters, 30% support holding new elections, compared to 24% of LIkud voters, 21% of UTJ voters, 18% of Yamina voters, and 13% of Blue and White and Shas voters.

The Israeli Voice Index for July 2020 was prepared by the Guttman Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research of the Israel Democracy Institute. In the survey, which was conducted on the internet and by telephone (supplements of groups that are not sufficiently represented on the network) during July 27-29, 2020, 607 men and women were interviewed in Hebrew and 150 in Arabic, constituting a representative national sample of the entire adult population of Israel aged 18 and older. The maximum sampling error for the entire sample was 3.7%± at a confidence level of 95%. The fieldwork was done by the Midgam Institute.