66 percent of Israelis want Netanyahu to leave politics

June 29 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Two-thirds of Israelis want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave politics and not seek re-election, a poll has found.

27 percent believe that Netanyahu should run in the next elections and 7 percent do not know or do not answer, according to the Midgan and iPanel study for Israeli television Channel 12.

For voters in the right-wing and religious bloc, 37 percent believe that Netanyahu should not run and 53 percent believe that he should continue in power. The Channel 12 study and another Channel 13 survey point to Naftali Bennett (New Hope), Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu), Gideon Saar and Yossi Cohen as possible replacements for Netanyahu in his field.

Bennett is preferred by 30 percent of respondents, of which 50 percent are voters of opposition parties, followed by Lieberman and Cohen (10 percent each) and Saar (4 percent).

Bennett retired from the Police in 2022, when he was prime minister, after the fall of his coalition, but now seems willing to return. Polls suggest that the population considers Bennett more suitable than Netanyahu.

The poll also reveals that the majority of Israelis (66 percent) support the Supreme Court’s decision this week, which repealed the exemption from military service that had been in force until now for ultra-Orthodox haredis. 24 percent reject it and 10 percent do not know or do not answer.