Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks during a press conference at Defense Headquarters in Tel Aviv, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to fire him from his position as a defense minister, November 5, 2024. (Photo: Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Most Israelis oppose the dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a series of polls conducted after the controversial decision. However, the same polls show that Netanyahu’s Likud party continues to gather the most votes, if elections were held now.
In all polls, just over half of the respondents said they opposed Gallant’s dismissal or thought it unjustified.
According to I24’s polls, 52% said they thought it was unjustified, while 32% said they thought firing Gallant was justified.
Around half of respondents also told I24 that they don’t trust Netanyahu’s explanation for why Gallant was fired. 49% said they did not believe him, instead being convinced he wanted to fire Gallant to pass an IDF draft law and stabilize the coalition, amid Haredi threats to bolt.
The right-leaning Channel 14 found that 53% said they opposed Netanyahu’s decision, while 45% were in favor of it. Among coalition voters, however, the channel found that 80% supported Netanyahu and only 17% opposed him.
The public broadcaster Kan News also found that 52% opposed Gallant’s dismissal, with 27% supporting it. A similar proportion (55%) said that the move harms Israel’s security, against 23% who said that the move contributes to security.
According to Kan, the respondents are skeptical about the motivation for Netanyahu’s decisions.
56% of those surveyed said that the prime minister’s main consideration is the stability of the coalition, while only 27% thought that the security of the country was his main motivation.
Left-leaning Channel 12 said 55% opposed the dismissal, 44% of them even expressing strong opposition.
32% said they supported the dismissal. Of the supporters, 58% identified themselves as coalition voters, while 87% of the opposing party said they voted for opposition parties.
The dramatic decision caused large-scale – but not massive – demonstrations across the country , and had immediate effects on the overall election polls.
Israelis protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, near the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, November 6, 2024. (Photo: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Despite Netanyahu’s apparently unpopular decision, there were barely and discernible effects on the Likud Party’s support, indicating most of its voters supported the movee.
Channel 14, whose polls always give the Likud Party markedly more seats than the polls of the other, more left-leaning channels, said if elections were held today, Netanyahu’s party would receive 33 seats.
Second place is Gantz’s National Unity with 16 seats, before Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu with 14 seats. Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid came in at a disappointing 6th place in the poll, with only 8 prospective seats.
While their polls gave the Likud much fewer seats, polls conducted by Kan and Channel 12 agreed that Likud would win the elections with 24 and 25 mandates, respectively.
Second place went to National Unity with 21 and 20 seats, respectively.
In third place, Kan has Yisrael Beytenu with 15, while Channel 12 gave third place to Yesh Atid with 15 seats.
Another notable outcome of the polls is the strong performance of Yair Golan’s left-wing Democrats Party, which received between 10 and 11 seats in all polls.
Kan also found that a new party founded by Naftali Bennett would become the second largest party with 21 seats, taking 4 mandates from the current coalition.