Following two days of rage, one feeble presidential attempt to thumb the scales leftward, and one week before this part of the nightmare is over (to remind you: on April 2, the Knesset concludes its winter session and everybody is going home to shop for matzos), Direct Polls shared published their recent findings of what goes on inside the anti-reform camp.
“We were surprised by two distinct figures,” the pollsters said. “The percentage of those who support the need for changes in the judicial system has increased dramatically, and at the same time, Millennials (Generation Y) are much less likely to participate in the protests or sympathize with their message.
The survey focused on those who voted in the last elections for the opposition Zionist parties: Labor, Meretz, Yesh Atid, the National Camp, and Israel Beitenu.
More Opposition-Voters Now Want Judicial Reform
“Since the beginning of the protests, we have been asking every week, ‘What is your principled position regarding the amendments and changes in the powers of the Israeli justice system?’” the pollsters say, and added:
“Last February, only 51% of opposition supporters agreed that ‘changes and corrections are needed in the judicial system, but they should be accepted by broad consensus. After a month of endless media panels and the president’s compromise outline, support for this position jumped to 79% (!). Today, only 12% of opposition supporters believe ‘there is no need for any change in the powers of the judicial system.’ Remember – no less than 42% of them thought so in February. The term ‘dramatic decline’ does not begin to describe what’s been happening in Israel.”
Only about 8% of opposition voters believe “the coalition should introduce the required changes and corrections in the judicial system even without a broad agreement.” However, among opposition voters aged 30-44, the next generation of decision-makers in Israel, 23% support letting the government pass the reform without a broad consensus.
The Old People Protest
This leads us to the following fact: this is largely a boomers’ protest movement, with a majority of those aged 50 and older filling the ranks. Images from the rally show lots of gray hair in the crowd, and the leadership is made up by-and-large by has-beens. “When we asked opposition supporters, ‘Did you participate in one of the protest actions against the reform?’ among those aged 45+, about 53% answered that they participated, while among those aged 30-44, only 27% said the same,” says the Direct Polls report.
Asked about the President’s outline, 68% of opposition party voters said the outline is balanced, 9% claimed is biased in favor of the reform, and 17% admitted it is biased in favor of the opponents of the reform. However, in the cross-section of people aged 30-44, 34% of them believe the president presented a biased outline in favor of the reform opponents.
In short, should Israel experience a civil war over the judicial reform, the armies of the left will require lots of medical attention, and someone to remind them when they must take their pills. Most younger Israelis who are against the reform will not show.
The survey was conducted by Shlomo Filber and Zuriel Sharon through Direct Falls Ltd. on March 16, 2023, using a digital system combined with a panel, among 993 sampled adults (18+) who are a representative sample of the general population in Israel. The statistical sampling error is +3.4% with a probability of 95%.
