A poll found that 62% of Israelis are deeply concerned about the sharp decline in their country’s standing on the international stage, while 31% said they were not concerned, as criticism grows within Israel of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s performance and his government’s image abroad.
The poll revealed a sharp divide between supporters of the governing coalition and opposition voters over international isolation. Some 59% of voters for Netanyahu’s coalition said they were not concerned about Israel’s isolation, while 88% of opposition voters expressed concern, including 54% who described their feeling as ‘very deep concern’. The poll was conducted by the Lazar Research Institute in cooperation with Panel4All.
Poll records divide over international isolation
Alongside questions about international standing, the poll examined voting preferences if new Knesset elections were held. The Knesset has 120 seats. It showed a decline in the strength of the ultra-Orthodox religious parties, known as Haredi parties.
Coalition declines as opposition parties rise
Netanyahu’s Likud came second with 18 seats, followed by Naftali Bennett’s party with 13 seats and the Democrats with 11. The poll results coincided with criticism from Israeli analysts and public figures of Netanyahu’s and Israel’s standing internationally during the prime minister’s visit to New York to attend the UN General Assembly.
Barak Seri, an analyst and former officer in Israeli military intelligence, said Netanyahu’s visit to New York was ‘extremely unusual, very short and almost devoid of meetings’. He added in remarks to local radio station 103 FM: ‘Netanyahu is now an outcast, and US President Donald Trump does not want to meet him.’
Eli Ohana, a former football star and former president of Beitar Jerusalem, spoke of concerns about displaying Israeli identity abroad, saying the situation in Israel was ‘not ideal’. He told the same radio station: ‘The situation in Israel is not ideal, we have not highlighted our Israeli identity outside our country, and when I was on holiday in Greece I hid my personal identity.’
Dan Shapiro, the former US ambassador to Tel Aviv, also said Israel’s standing in the United States was experiencing an ‘unprecedented decline’. Radio Reshet Bet quoted him as saying: ‘There has been an unprecedented decline in Israel’s standing in the United States.’ Shapiro served as ambassador between 2011 and 2017.
Israeli criticism of Netanyahu’s foreign performance
Netanyahu delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, amid a limited presence in the hall after delegations from several countries collectively walked out in protest at the war in the Gaza Strip, which they described as a genocidal war. The speech coincided with mass demonstrations in the city’s streets.
Netanyahu has faced an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court since 2024. In November 2024, the court issued warrants for him and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant over allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu has headed the current government since late December 2022. It is described as the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. Israeli forces, backed by the United States, have been waging war on the Gaza Strip since 8 October 2023, killing about 74,000 Palestinians and injuring around 175,000, most of them children and women.
Alongside the war in Gaza, attacks by Israeli forces and settlers on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have intensified, amid the international pressure addressed by the poll and the Israeli statements accompanying Netanyahu’s visit to New York.
