More than half of Israeli citizens of voting age want far-right Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave politics, according to a new poll published jointly last Friday, October 15, by The Jerusalem Post and Maariv newspapers.

Photo: Footage from Australian SBS News

When asked if they wanted Netanyahu to leave political life, 54% said yes, 36% said no, and 10% said they didn’t know. Among respondents who voted for the Likud in the last election in March, 28% wanted Netanyahu out of politics.

These numbers are similar to those who told the pollsters that they did not trust Netanyahu to handle the coronavirus crisis. As many as 55% said they could not trust him to deal with both the health crisis and the economic crisis. Asked whether they believe the decision to lock down the country was made for political reasons, 51% said yes, 34% said no, and 15% said they didn’t know. The poll was taken during the week prior to its publication among 1,033 respondents representing a statistical sample of Israel’s adult population. Its margin of error is 3.1%.