Israelis Support the West’s Policies on Russia Press Release

The Israeli Voice Index for February 2022 found that almost half of Israelis (48%) support the current policy of western countries to impose harsh sanctions on Russia but not to engage directly with military force. 37% of those surveyed believe that a military intervention is the preferred course of action.

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The Israeli Voice Index is a monthly survey conducted by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research.

Main findings:

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Is the Western Response appropriate? Israelis are divided in their opinion: 48% think that the Western states’ decision not to intervene militarily in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and to levy economic and other harsh sanctions on Russia, an appropriate response to Putin’s actions 51% Jewish Israelis and 35% Arab Israelis) – 39% disagree.

Military Intervention? 50% think that Western countries should not have intervened militarily against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and 37% think they should have.

International Arena – 52% of Israelis think that the war in the Ukraine are likely to affect (moderately or to a large extent) Israel’s strategic position in both the regional and international arenas – 34% think that it will have a moderately or very small affect on this.

Israel’s cautious approach – A large majority (67%) think that the Israeli government’s cautious approach to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and not taking a firm stance against Russia is the right thing to do – 21% think not.

Israeli Government

The Strongest Figure – The public is undecided as to who is the dominant figure in the government. 18% think that Avigdor Liberman is the strongest figure (up from 8% in June), 14% think so of Mansour Abbas (up from 11%), 12% think it is Prime Minister Naftali Bennet (down from 19%) and 9% think so of Yair Lapid (down from 26%). 39% do not know who is currently the strongest figure in the government (up from 31% in June 2021).

Who is currently the most dominant figure in the government, (%, Total sample)

Government Stability – 49% of Israelis think that the government will last at least until the end of the year - around a third (33%) think it will collapse before then. Among those who voted for parties on the left and center, the majority think the government will last at least till the end of the year – and among voters for the Likud and Haredi parties the majority think it will not.

COVID-19

Did Covid change Israelis personal situation? - Half of Israeli (50%) think that their personal situation hasn’t changed when compared to before the outbreak of the pandemic, 29% say their situation is worse and 18% say it has improved.

Among Arab Israelis there was a higher rate of those who answered that their personal situation has deteriorated – especially among Arab men - 49% among them, in comparison with 22% among Jewish men.

Sixth Wave? 63% of Israelis think that there is a very, or moderately, high chance that there will be another wave of a Covid variant in the foreseeable future – 51% think that Israel is to a very large, or moderately large, extent prepared to deal with it successfully.

The Israeli Voice Index for February 2022 was prepared by the Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research of the Israel Democracy Institute. In the survey, which was conducted on the internet and by telephone (supplements of groups that are not sufficiently represented on the network) from February 28 to 02 March, 2022, 601 men and women were interviewed in Hebrew and 153 in Arabic, constituting a representative national sample of the entire adult population of Israel aged 18 and older. The maximum sampling error for the entire sample was 3.59%± at a confidence level of 95%. The fieldwork was done by the Midgam Institute. For the full data file see: Data Israel