Poll: Israeli Youth Identifies with the Right

Poll finds Israeli teens identify with the right, want Lieberman to be prime minister and don't want Israel to concede territories.

by Elad Benari


A new poll whose results were released on Monday has found that most youth in Israel tend to identify with the right side of the political map.

According to the results reported on Channel 10 News, 17% of high school students believe that Israel’s next Prime Minister should be outspoken rightist Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu). Lieberman is followed by well-known leftist journalist and television personality, Yair Lapid (who has not officially announced he is running for politics but who has openly expressed his desire to rebuild his late father, Tommy Lapid’s militantly secular and anti-hareidi centrist Shinui party), who got 13%. Current Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu received only 8%.

“There are an additional three percent who mentioned Kahane, [Baruch] Marzel and [National Union MK Michael] Ben Ari,” Professor Camille Fuchs of Tel Aviv University, who conducted the poll, told Channel 10.

The poll also found that the youth would give the Likud party 26 seats in the next election, Kadima would receive 23 seats, Yisrael Beiteinu would receive 22 seats, and the Labor party, which is trying to be seen as representing social welfare protestors, would receive only five seats.

75% of the teenagers polled said they are opposed to removing Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and 60% believe Israel would be better off giving up on a peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority that would include giving Jerusalem’s Arab neighborhoods to the PA.

On another major issue, 83% of the youth said they would prefer that Israel not sign a peace treaty with Syria if it calls for the return of the Golan Heights.

“We’ve tried reaching peace agreements and it hasn’t worked,” one teenager told Channel 10. “Maybe we need to take measures that are more aggressive.”

MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union) welcomed the results and said, “Israeli youth is a healthy youth and the left and the media cannot spoil it. The youth has had enough of surrender and humiliation and they want a different policy toward the enemy.”