Poll: Most Israelis give Netanyahu bad grade on coalition building

Respondents believe Kahlon will fail to fix housing crisis.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
Benjamin Netanyahu (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST,JPOST STAFF)
Benjamin Netanyahu
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST,JPOST STAFF)
A majority of Israelis believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did a poor job building the governing coalition that he formed last week.
The monthly Peace Index poll of the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, released on Tuesday, asked Israelis to rate Netanyahu’s conduct of the negotiations with the various parties on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst and 10 the best.
The answer given most was 1, by 19.3 percent of respondents.
Altogether, 50.6% of those surveyed gave the prime minister a grade of 1 to 5.
Some 42% of Israeli Jews said a unity government in which the Likud and the Zionist Union are the senior partners would best serve the country’s interest, while 35% of Israeli Jews said a government composed of the secular-right, Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox parties would better serve Israel’s interests, and 15% said there is no difference between them.
Among Israeli Arabs, 38% believe there is no difference between the two options, 27% said that a unity government would better serve Israel’s interest, and 18% said that a right-wing government would better serve Israel’s interests.
While 65% of Israeli Jews said Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon is suited to be finance minister, 63% of them believe that chances are low that Kahlon will succeed in bringing a major change to the housing market as he has promised, while 31% believe chances are high that he will succeed. Israeli Arabs are much more optimistic about Kahlon, with 52% deeming his chances of success are high and 27% low.
The poll asked about the recent protests held by Ethiopian Israelis and supporters.
Three-quarters of the respondents said the demands of the Ethiopian-Israeli demonstrators were justified, but around that same number said it was wrong of some of the demonstrators to take the law into their own hands.