Poll: 69% think Netanyahu shouldn’t run in next election, Bennett favored for PM
Just 18% of respondents plan to watch government ceremony to mark Oct. 7 anniversary; as school year set to start with high school strike, 59% say Kisch doing terrible job
A large majority of Israelis believe this should be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s last term and that he shouldn’t run in the next elections, according to a poll published by Channel 12 news on Friday.
Sixty-nine percent of respondents said Netanyahu should resign when elections are next held as opposed to only 22% who believed he should run for prime minister. The remaining nine percent said they didn’t know.
The opinion was seen also among constituents of the coalition parties, with 46% saying Netanyahu should resign and 43% saying he should run again.
Similarly to polls in the last couple of weeks, Netanyahu was deemed a better option for prime minister than opposition leader Yair Lapid and National Unity leader Benny Gantz.
Netanyahu gained one percent of approval over Lapid (36%) since a poll last week, while the latter remained at 27%. A third of respondents said they would prefer someone else, and the remaining four percent said they didn’t know.
When faced against Gantz, Netanyahu only got one percent more approval with 33% to Gantz’s 32%. Of the remaining respondents, 30% said they preferred someone else, and five percent said they didn’t know.
Former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who is currently not involved in politics, was the only individual deemed more suitable than Netanyahu to be prime minister, with a 38% approval rating to Netanyahu’s 33%. Of the remaining respondents, 25% said they preferred someone else, and four percent said they didn’t know.
The poll also asked respondents about the remembrance ceremonies to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
The issue is a particular source of contention as many people, notably including families of hostages and families who lost loved ones on October 7, have heavily criticized the state ceremony being organized by Transportation Minister Miri Regev, who dismissed a growing boycott of the event and objections among Gaza border communities and hostage families of the event as “noise.”
The poll asked respondents which ceremony was more suitable – the state ceremony or an alternative ceremony being organized by families affected by October 7.
The state ceremony was only deemed more appropriate by 18% of respondents, while 60% voted for the families’ ceremony. The remaining respondents said they didn’t know.
Sixty percent of respondents also said they would not watch the state ceremony, which is being filmed ahead of time without an audience and televised as opposed to livestreamed. Only 24% of respondents said they would watch the state ceremony.
Meanwhile, with the school year scheduled to begin on Sunday with parents and students facing uncertainty as the Teachers’ Union threatens to strike in high schools, the poll found wide dissatisfaction with Education Ministry Yoav Kisch.
Asked how they would rate Kisch’s performance, 59% of respondents said he was doing a terrible job while 24% said he was doing well.
Parents with school-aged kids were also asked how satisfied they were with the education system in general, with 74% saying they were dissatisfied and just 23% saying they were satisfied.
