Poll finds Israeli Arabs think Left will win

When asked who should be PM, poll finds that Netanyahu leads with 34% of vote, Herzog trails with 17%; Israelis divided on where Koolanu stands on political map.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
An Israeli flag is seen in the background as a man casts his ballot for the parliamentary election (photo credit: REUTERS)
An Israeli flag is seen in the background as a man casts his ballot for the parliamentary election
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Israeli Jews believe the Right bloc will form the next coalition and Israeli Arabs believe it will be done by the Center-Left bloc, according to the monthly Peace Index poll of the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, which was released Tuesday.
The poll found that among Israeli Jews, 59.8 percent believe the Right bloc will form the government, 24.4% said the Center-Left bloc would, and 15.8% did not know or declined to respond. Among Israeli Arabs, 51.9% said the Center- Left bloc and 18.8% said the Right, and 29.4% did not know or declined to respond.
Asked which bloc they wanted to form the coalition, 54.8% of Jews said the Right, 32.5% the Center- Left, and 12.7% declined to answer or did not know.
Among Arabs, 63.3% said the Left, 15.7% the Right and 21% did know or declined to respond.
Respondents had a tough time defining where parties like Yisrael Beytenu, Yesh Atid, Shas, and Koolanu are on the political map. For instance, 28.7% of respondents said Koolanu was in the Center, 19.7% said it was on the Right, 7.5% said the Left, 29.2% said it was not clear at the moment, and 14.9% did not know or would not answer.
When Jews were asked who they want to be prime minister, 34.4% said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 17.7% Labor leader Isaac Herzog, 10.5% Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett, 6.3% Hatnua head Tzipi Livni, 5.3% Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, 4.2% Koolanu head Moshe Kahlon, 2.6% Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid, and 18.9% did not know or declined to respond. None of the above was not a choice.
Among those polled, 40.6% said the most pressing election issues were socioeconomic, 32.8% said security or political issues, 18% said both, 4.7% either or neither, and 5.4% did not know or declined to answer.
Among Israeli Jews, 55.6% said the election was not justified, 36.8% said it was justified, and 7.9% did not know or declined to respond.
As usual in Peace Index polls, there was a large percentage in favor of negotiations, even though only a small percent believe the talks will bring peace.
The poll asked whether European parliaments recognizing a Palestinian state before a peace agreement has been signed contributes to Israel’s national interest or damages it.
Only 10% of Israeli Jews said it contributes, 69.8% said it damages, 12.9% said it has no impact and 7.2% did not respond or did not know.
The survey was conducted by telephone on December 29-31, 2014 by the Midgam Research Institute. The survey included 600 respondents, who constitute a representative national sample of the adult population aged 18 and over. The survey was conducted in Hebrew, Arabic and Russian. The maximum measurement error for the entire sample is ±4.1% at a confidence level of 95%.