Poll: 6 in 10 Israelis fear for democracy as Netanyahu finalizes hardline coalition

Roughly six in ten Israelis are concerned about the future of Israeli democracy, according to a poll released Friday as prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu moved closer to finalizing his next government with a series of hardline Orthodox parties.

Sixty-one percent of respondents to a Channel 12 survey said they’re worried about the future of Israeli democracy, while 35% said they were not.

Among them, 41 % of respondents who voted for parties in the Netanyahu-led right-wing religious bloc said they were concerned, compared to 82% of respondents who voted for parties in the anti-Netanyahu bloc who said the same.

Respondents were also asked whether the National Unity party led by outgoing-Defense Minister Benny Gantz should enter Netanyahu’s government, ostensibly instead of the far-right Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit and Noam parties. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said yes, while 46% said no. Among the anti-Netanyahu bloc voters, 63% said that Gantz should agree to enter the Likud-led coalition.

Gantz rejected the idea during a Friday interview on Channel 12, saying he doesn’t “believe a word that comes out of Netanyahu’s mouth.”

The two formed a unity coalition in 2020 that lasted less than a year after Netanyahu sought to block Gantz from replacing him as premier as part of a rotation agreement. Gantz also accused Netanyahu on Friday of allowing the “dismantlement of the IDF” through the various coalition deals he’s signed in recent weeks that appear to strip authority over some security force units operating in the West Bank away from the IDF.

The National Unity chairman also warned that Netanyahu would tear the state apart if he doesn’t manage to reign in on the extremist parties he’s bringing into his coalition.

Netanyahu has already signed coalition deals with the far-right Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionism and Noam parties and is slated to finalize agreements with the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties in the coming days.

In the deal with Otzma Yehudit, Netanyahu agreed to appoint party chairman Itamar Ben Gvir as national security minister with authority over Israel Police and the Border Police’s Division in the West Bank. He also agreed to advance the legalization of dozens of illegal Israeli outposts throughout the West Bank. Ben Gvir has pledged to deport “disloyal” Arabs, impose the death penalty for those convicted of terror acts and ease security forces’ open-fire rules against Palestinian suspects.

In the deal with Religious Zionism, Netanyahu agreed to name party chairman Bezalel Smotrich finance minister in addition to transferring control over a pair of Defense Ministry bodies responsible for authorizing settlement construction, Palestinian home demolitions and broader control of Palestinian civilian life to a member of the far-right right party.

Smotrich has pushed for the dismantlement of the Palestinian Authority and supports annexing large parts of the West Bank without granting equal rights to Palestinians in those areas. He also campaigned on passing legislation that would cancel two of the three charges Netanyahu faces in his criminal trial and has backed implementing a state governed by Orthodox religious law.

In Likud’s deal with the homophobic Noam party, Netanyahu agreed to appoint him deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office tasked with running the new “national Jewish identity” government agency, which will come with a budget of at least NIS 100 million ($29 million), as well as over a dozen staffers.

The Education Ministry unit responsible for external teaching and partnerships will be placed under Maoz’s control, giving him authority over non-official bodies enlisted to teach or lecture at schools. Maoz says he will work to end both female service in the IDF along with the annual Jerusalem pride parade.

Lawmakers from all parties of the likely coalition have also pledged to pass legislation that would allow the Knesset to pass legislation to override High Court of Justice decisions — such legislation could well be passed in the coming days, as current law bars recently convicted lawmakers from becoming ministers and Netanyahu plans to appoint twice-convicted Shas chairman Aryeh Deri as interior minister. The High Court would likely reject such an appointment, leading many lawmakers to believe that an override bill would be necessary.

Former Likud MK Tzachi Hanegbi told Channel 12 that Netanyahu no longer backs a two-state solution after publicly doing so in 2009. “There’ll never be two states. It will never happen. Netanyahu won’t allow it. The people don’t want it,” he said. Longstanding polling has indicated otherwise, with the two-state outcome still Israelis’ preferred format over the alternatives.

The Friday-published poll also asked respondents about the punishment handed down to a soldier in Hebron who was filmed boasting to left-wing activists about how the Religious Zionism chairman will restore order in the flashpoint city.

Thirty-two percent of respondents said Ben Gvir was right in backing the soldier in the viral video, compared to 42% who agreed with IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi, who said that the soldier had acted inappropriately and deserved to be punished. Among pro-Netanyahu voters, 58% agreed with Ben Gvir compared to just 14% who backed Kohavi.

Asked whether they feared for the future of the IDF as the people’s army, 44% of respondents said they did while 44% said they did not.

Channel 12 did not divulge how many people participated in the poll or what its margin of error was.