The majority of Israelis who define themselves as Center-Left voters prefer giving the "pro-change" coalition a chance than going to the polls for the fifth time in two years, but most of them also do not believe is would last very long, a poll by Channel 12 on Saturday revealed.
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Most right-wing voters said they preferred a fifth trip to the polls to the ouster of the Likud-led government.
The Midgam Polling Institute survey, which aired on Meet the Press, found that 46% of Israelis said they would like to see the new government, led by Yamina leader Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid, installed, but 42% of them were not sure that it would be able to live out its four-year term. Sixteen percent believed the Bennett-Lapid government would not be sworn in at all, and only 24% of respondents were optimistic that not only will the new coalition be inducted – it would last.
Of those who participated in the poll and defined themselves as right-wing voters, 32% said they preferred the new government, 55% said Israel should call a fifth vote, and 13% had no opinion on the matter.
Of the respondents who defined themselves as Center-Left voters, 72% endorsed the Bennett-Lapid government, 14% preferred a fifth election, and 14% had no opinion on the matter.
Overall, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still enjoys public confidence among right-wing voters – 53% over Bennett's 29%, with 21% of respondents saying they were undecided.
Among left-wing voters, 73% expressed faith in Bennett, 9% said the same of Netanyahu, and 18% were undecided.
As for the question of "who is to blame" for the fact the next government would not be solely right-wing, 41% of the respondents named Netanyahu, 24% named Bennett, 12% held Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich responsibly, 6% named another cause, and 17% said they had no opinion on the matter.
Moreover, 52% said Netanyahu has made a mistake when he rejected a proposal by Finance Minister Israel Katz to name another head for Likud for one year, so as to allow for the formation of a right-wing government. Some 21% thought Netanyahu was right to reject the idea, and 27% had no opinion on the matter.
The poll further found that the majority of the Israeli public – 48% – was displeased with the fact that the Islamist Ra'am party would be part of the coalition. Some 40% supported the notion.
Some 36% of respondents said they supported establishing the new government via the tacit consent of the Joint Arab List – which plans to abstain during the vote in the new government, thus allowing it to form. Thirty-one percent of those polled opposed the idea.
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