A slight majority of Israelis (50%) oppose President Isaac Herzog issuing a presidential pardon to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the results of a poll published on Tuesday by the Israel Democracy Institute.
When asked their opinion on whether or not Herzog should issue a pardon to Netanyahu in order to “halt the criminal proceedings against him, so that he can continue as prime minister without any distraction,” 41% of participants expressed that they think he should be pardoned.
Both Jewish and Arab-Israelis largely opposed the possibility of the pardon, but when broken down by political party, the issue was extremely divisive for Jews across the political spectrum.
Over half of right-leaning Jews, 58%, expressed support for the pardon, whereas only 7% of left-leaning Jews agreed.
Surveyed individuals were also asked to rate the corruption of Israel’s current leadership from one, very corrupt, to five, not corrupt at all. Almost 56% of respondents said that they believed Israel’s government is “very or fairly corrupt.”
This stayed consistent across most demographics and political affiliations, with the exception of both Arab-Israelis and right-leaning Jewish Israelis, less than half of whom agreed that Israel’s current government is corrupt.
Researchers additionally asked if participants viewed the United States's sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia as an event that would or would not harm Israel’s security.
Demographics were split on this topic, with 61% of Jewish Israelis indicating that the deal would be harmful to Israel, whereas 58% of Arab-Israelis disagreed. However, approximately 14% of both groups reported not knowing.
Majority of Israelis expect military conflict, uprising in West Bank
Survey results also demonstrated that the vast majority of Israelis expect military conflict in the near future.
Hezbollah is the most likely cause, with 71% viewing renewed military conflict with the Lebanese Shi'ite group as likely in the next year, followed by Iran, at 69%, Hamas at 53%, and the Houthis at 47%.
Sixty-four percent of Jewish Israelis also expect an intifada in the West Bank in the foreseeable future, while less than half of Arab Israeli's agree.
In addition, nearly half of Israelis (45%) also believe that settler violence isn't handled seriously enough. This is an increase from the previous poll in July when 42% held this view.
The survey, conducted by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute, asked more than 700 Jewish and Arab Israelis a series of questions about Israeli politics and international issues related to Israel.