However, the ultra-Orthodox sector showed a significant decline in trust for Netanyahu in the latest survey, the third in a new series of bi-weekly surveys of the national mood under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Or Anabi, a researcher at the Guttmann Center at the Israel Democracy Institute, said the decline from 89% approval to 71% was the result of the government shutdown of Bnei Brak and other haredi neighborhoods, as well as the fact that Netanyahu did not make any public statement defending haredim from public criticism of the ways they have handled the situation. President Reuven Rivlin and several health officials have denounced such criticisms.
When asked "Relative to what you’ve heard about other countries, what grade would you give the State of Israel for the way it tackles the coronavirus challenge?" the average score was 7.2 out of 10.Regarding Netanyahu himself, 53.9% said they trusted his leadership in the crisis, just a bit lower than the 57.4% recorded a few days earlier. Anabi noted that the high level of support was somewhat surprising. "If you would have said two months ago that Bibi would shut down the entire country and the nation would be supporting him, no one would have believed you," he said.
When asked "to what extent do you fear or not fear for your economic well-being in the foreseeable future?", 65.5% of respondents said they "greatly fear" or "moderately fear." Over the past few surveys, results have ranged from 64.5% to 67.6%.
For the question "Are you optimistic or pessimistic about Israel society's ability to overcome the current crisis?", 66.4% said they were very optimistic or somewhat optimistic, a slight decrease from 69.6% a few days earlier.
Are these fluctuations significant? "Yes, and no," Anabi said. On the one hand, a change of 3% or so is significantly significant in a survey of more than 750 Israelis. On the other hand, we only have a week of survey data, and it is too early to point to directional trends.
To the question "When do you estimate Israel will fully return to normal, following a decline in the coronavirus threat level?", 34.1% said between one to three months, 34.1% said three months to a year, 13.4% expected a change right after Passover, and 10.2% said it would be more than a year.
The survey also asked Israeli Jews about their Passover observance. Asked "will you keep kosher this Passover as before?" 62% said they would continue to keep kosher as before, 27% will continue not keeping kosher as before, 6.2% plan to keep kosher less this year, and 2.5% plan to keep it more this year.