More than half of Israelis of voting age want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave politics, according to a new poll published by Panels Research for The Jerusalem Post and Maariv newspapers.
When asked if they wanted Netanyahu to leave political life, 54% said yes, 36% said no, and 10% said they did not know. Among respondents who voted Likud in the last election in March, 28% wanted Netanyahu out of politics, and among those who cast ballots for Yamina, 57% wanted him to go.
The numbers were similar to those who told the pollsters that they did not trust Netanyahu to handle the coronavirus crisis. As many as 55% said they could not trust him to deal with both the health crisis and the economic crisis.
Asked whether they believed the decision to lock down was made for political reasons, 51% said yes, 34% said no, and 15% said they did not know.
According to the poll, if elections were to be held now, Netanyahu’s Likud would win 28 seats and Naftali Bennett’s Yamina would gain 21. Yesh Atid-Telem would win 17, the Joint List 14, and Yisrael Beytenu, Shas and Blue and White nine each. The poll predicted seven seats for United Torah Judaism and six for Meretz.
The poll was taken on Sunday and Monday among 1,033 respondents representing a statistical sample of Israel’s adult population and had a margin of error of 3.1%.