What do Jews in the UK think about Israel’s leaders and its future?
79% of Jews in the UK disapprove of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, many are pessimistic towards the country’s future
We repost without futher comment a new report issued by the Institute of Jewish Policy Research which shows the extent to which Jews in Britain have been shaken by recent developments in Israel.
Published
by
Richard Kuper
Dr Jonathan Boyd Dr Carli Lessof, Institute for Jewish Policy Research
1st August 2023
In this report:
This factsheet looks into what UK Jews think of key Israeli leaders and the country’s future, as protests in Israel over the government’s ‘judicial reforms’ have reached boiling point this summer. The study draws on data from two recent JPR Research Panel surveys: the 2022 National Jewish Identity Survey, undertaken in November/December 2022, just before Israel’s current government took power, and the 2023 Antisemitism in the UK, undertaken in April/May 2023.
Some of the key findings in this report:
- Among those who expressed an opinion, 79% of Jews in the UK disapprove of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A slightly higher proportion (85%) disapprove of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
- Disapproval ratings for both Netanyahu and Smotrich have climbed substantially over the past six months, by about ten percentage points in both cases.
- 72% of Jews in the UK are pessimistic about the future of democratic governance in Israel. The equivalent figure for Israeli Jews is 55%.
- A higher proportion of Jews in the UK are pessimistic about the future of democratic governance in Israel (72%) than about Israel’s security situation (58%).
- Over four in ten Jews in the UK (44%) say Israel’s overall situation is ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ compared to 12% who say it is ‘good’ or ‘very good’. The equivalent figures for Israeli Jews are 40% to 24%.
There seem to be another 44% of respondents to the last question left unaccounted for — can they really all be ‘don’t knows’? I’d also like to know how these thoughts about Israel map onto other attitudes, eg defensiveness , identification, fear.