Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared anti-government protesters in Israel to pro-Palestinian protesters in the US in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
“Everybody’s fixated on these protests, which are financed, organized, and so on. They don’t reflect the majority of people any more than the ‘mobocracies’ on American campuses. These protesters, these mobs, do they reflect the majority of American people? No? Well, it’s the same thing here,” said Netanyahu.
Netanyahu compares Israelis protesting his government/lack of hostage deal to pro-Pales. campus protesters.“These protests.. don’t reflect the majority of the people anymore than the mobocracies in American campuses.. do they reflect the majority of the American people? No.” pic.twitter.com/vNyavFpAWb
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) May 15, 2024
Netanyahu stressed that the majority of Israelis “support a victory” and want Hamas removed, adding that he has “vast support” from the Israeli public.
Likud, Netanyahu losing support in polls
Protests calling for elections and a deal to release the hostages being held by Hamas have been held on a weekly basis in the past few months. Several polls over the past few months have found that a large portion of the Israeli public supports early elections and believes Netanyahu should resign.
The prime minister’s Likud party has plunged in polls conducted since October 7th, with a poll published by Maariv on Friday finding that his party would earn just 17 seats, a steep drop from the 32 seats it currently holds in the Knesset.
Additionally, when asked who would be a better prime minister, 47% of respondents to the Maariv poll said that Minister Benny Gantz would be the better option, while 34% chose Netanyahu.
A recent poll by the Berl Katznelson Foundation and the Midgam company found that 60% of Israelis are unsatisfied with the government’s conduct regarding security and civil issues, with 43% of center-right and right-wing voters saying they are unsatisfied. Only 19% of right-wing voters said they were satisfied with the government’s performance.
In March, a poll by N12 found that 50% of right-wing Israelis believe early elections should be called, including 40% of Likud voters.
Comments are closed.