Survey: Arab Israelis Consider Netanyahu Best Suited To Be Prime Minister

Jerusalem – Almost a quarter (23.6%) of respondents to a poll of Israel’s Arab public published this month said that Benjamin Netanyahu was best suited to be Israel’s next prime minister.

The poll, commissioned by Arik Rudnizky at the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, was conducted by Mitchell Barak of Keevoon Research Strategy & Communications.

After Netanyahu, 9.9% of respondents said Joint List head Ayman Odeh was most suited to be prime minister, followed by 9.6% for Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, 7.7% for the Democratic Union’s Ehud Barak and 7% for Yamina leader Ayelet Shaked.

According to the poll, 32% of respondents said they intend to vote, 26.4% do not intend to vote and 42% are undecided. The vast majority of the Arab public (80.5%) that intends to vote is planning to vote for the Joint List, according to the poll.

According to the survey, 71.5% of Arab Israelis are satisfied with their life in Israel; 65.2% believe they are treated equally and 64.7% have a positive view of the state. However, when asked to rate their sense of belonging in the country on a scale of 1 to 10, the average response was 4.

The survey data was collected between August 21 and September 8 via mobile phone and with a representative sample of the Arab population age 18 and above. The sample size was 716 respondents out of 4,500 participants, and the margin of error is 3.6%.

(JNS)