The national religious public is split between 53% who say there is currently no party in the Knesset that represents them and 43% who say there is. This is according to a survey conducted by the Lazar Research Institute, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, for the "Third Path" movement.
The breakdown of the survey data further shows that there is a clear difference between members of the conservative subgroup in the religious public, the majority of whom (69%) felt that someone represented them, and almost all members of the liberal subgroup (80%) who claimed that they had no representation in the current Knesset.
The same result was obtained regarding political figures: 53% claimed that there is currently no political figure who represents them, compared to 47% who claimed that there is.
The majority of religious conservatives (66%) answered in the affirmative, compared to the majority (69%) of religious liberals who answered in the negative. Those who said that there is a political figure who represents them were asked to state their name openly.Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was mentioned by 27% of respondents (47% of conservatives, 21% of members of the mainstream group, and none of the liberals). He was followed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (18%), MK Itamar Ben-Gvir (16%), and Naftali Bennett (11%).
The other figures mentioned were mentioned sparesely. Ofer Winter received the most votes (60% of respondents mentioned him, especially in the conservative group – 77%), followed by Rabbi Shai Piron, who received 27% support (especially in the liberal group – 37%), and Alia Bloch (25%).
Who is there to represent Israel's religious community in Knesset?
The survey also shows that in the eyes of the liberal public, the most representative figures are Naftali Bennett with 25%, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – 22%, and MK Hili Tropper – 20%. According to the survey, the vast majority of respondents (80%) attribute importance to voting for a religious party, whether it is very important to them (42%) or fairly important to them (38%). In contrast, only 20% responded that it is not important to them.
On the liberal side, it was found that for half of the respondents (47%), it is not important to vote for a party defined as religious. In contrast, an absolute majority of conservatives (75%) said that this is very important to them. The survey also shows that improving the conduct of the Chief Rabbinate (very important to 47% of respondents and quite important to another 39%) and promoting equality in burdens (very important to 46% and quite important to 36%) are the two most important issues that respondents said they would vote for Labor to address.
They were followed by attitudes toward women's rights (very important to 43%), integrating haredim into employment (40%), and preventing public transportation on Shabbat (38%).
Most respondents (55%), especially members of the conservative group (60%), said they would vote for a combined party with national religious representatives alongside modern ultra-Orthodox members. 33% said the combination bothers them, but they would vote if they connected with the people or the party's agenda, and only 12% said they would not vote for such a party.
The survey also shows that the vast majority of respondents (72%), especially conservatives (85%), said they would not vote for a party that did not have right-wing security-political positions. 400 respondents, representing a representative sample of the national religious public, participated in the survey. The maximum sampling error is 4.4%.
"The survey brings the cry of a broad public in Israel, which demands different representation, demands leadership and demands different politics," claimed Rabbi Dr. Michael Avraham, chairman of the "Third Path" movement, following the findings - "The political vacuum represents a deeper crisis of identity and worldview. A broad religious public finds itself without a conceptual and ideological framework with which it identifies, and this is expressed in voting for non-religious parties."