The imposition of sanctions on West Bank settlements by the UK has strengthened Prime Minister Netanyahu’s electoral prospects, new polling has found.
A survey carried out by Merlin Strategies for the European Leadership Network (Elnet), an EU-based pro-Israel advocacy group, showed that “sanctions have nudged Israelis towards parties that put security and Israel’s interests first”.
While no party was specified in that context, those priorities are generally associated with the Israeli Right and the right-wing bloc headed by Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Among a representative sample of more than 800 Israelis surveyed online, 28 per cent said they were more likely after sanctions to vote for a party that prioritises “Israeli security” than before, compared to 18 per cent who said they were less likely to do so – a net gain of 10 per cent.
Likewise, 12 per cent said the measures would increase their support for politicians who “refuse to bow to criticism from foreign allies”, amounting to a net gain of three per cent.
Perhaps most remarkably, given the aim of the sanctions to stymie settlement expansion, 20 per cent of those surveyed said they had made them more likely to back leaders who support the settlement project.
While 16 per cent said they were less likely to support settlements, this still marked a net increase of four per cent compared to before the sanctions.
Meanwhile, parties who “stand up to extremist settlers” and “prioritise building good relations with European countries” saw a net decline in support of one per cent in both categories, as well as a net drop of four per cent for prioritising “co-existence with the Palestinian territories”.
However, there was an equivalent net gain for parties who “prioritise peace as a pathway to Israeli security”.
Elsewhere, another section of the poll showed that, while security was the second-most important issue to voters, with 34 per cent ranking it within their top three priorities, strengthening the economy and reducing the cost of living was a slightly more significant motivating factor, with 42 per cent valuing it within their top three.
But strengthening relationships with the UK and European nations came at the bottom of the list, with just four per cent seeing it as a key priority.
Likewise, the future of Gaza ranked low at just 11 per cent, while addressing the threat from Iran was on the mind of 26 per cent of voters, making it the third-highest priority on average.
Finally, the sanctions also appear to have had a moderately damaging effect on how the UK is viewed in Israel, with 15 per cent seeing it as “less of an ally” than before the measures, compared to just nine per cent seeing it as a greater ally.
But the predominant sentiment among those surveyed was that the UK was not considered an ally in the first place, with 42 per cent sharing that view.
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