In the event that Israel signs an agreement with Saudi Arabia normalizing the relations between the two countries, most Israelis believe it won’t make much of a difference in the judicial reform protests.
The new data comes from a recent special survey conducted by the Israeli Democracy Institute.
For the survey, 751 people aged 18 and above were interviewed from September 18-21.
Survey respondents were asked if signing an agreement with Saudi Arabia would impact Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political status.
In response, 41% of respondents answered that such an agreement would strengthen Netanyahu’s position.
However, a total of 44% disagreed. Specifically, 39% of survey respondents answered that such an agreement would have no impact on the prime minister’s political status and 5% felt that it would actually serve to weaken his status.
These figures, through a lens examining the political leaning of the respondents, reveal modest differences between the various political camps. Specifically, half (50%) of Jewish respondents on the political Right believe that a Saudi agreement would advance Netanyahu’s political position.
Survey respondents from the political Left and Center believe, as a whole, the reverse. Precisely, 42% from the Center and 44% from the Left affirm that an agreement would not further Netanyahu’s political positioning.
Will a Saudi agreement have an effect on the judicial reform protests?
Regarding a potential Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement’s impact on judicial reform protests, again the majority of the survey’s respondents believe that the current government, which is advancing the controversial reforms, will not see much of a benefit.
A majority of survey respondents (55%) say that they believe there will be no impact on the protests. Further, an additional 16% of respondents feel an agreement will serve to strengthen the protests.
Only 10% of survey respondents say they don’t know if such an agreement would have an impact on the protests and merely 9% answered that they think it will weaken the protests.
A press release on the survey notes that it was conducted at the Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute.