A new survey conducted ahead of the right-wing organizations' conference to be held next Wednesday at the Begin Heritage Center reveals that the issue of the conscription law constitutes a breaking point within the right. If the law is enacted in its current form, one-third of right-wing voters will abandon the parties currently defined as right-wing.
The survey, conducted by "Lazar Research," led by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in collaboration with the Institute for Jewish and Zionist Studies, among right-wing voters, shows a significant decline in political support for right-wing parties that promote the current conscription law, which grants an exemption from conscription to the Haredi sector.
Those who voted for Likud / Religious Zionism – Otzma Yehudit in the 2022 elections were asked, "Will you vote again for the same party from 2022 if it leads the conscription exemption law?" About a third (32%) answered that they would not vote for the same party if it leads the conscription exemption law. Only 27% of those who voted for the Religious Zionist Party in 2022 intend to vote for it again, and 49% of them said they do not plan to do so.
A third of the respondents (29%) who voted for one of the current coalition parties believe that the passage of the conscription law by the government would be grounds for dissolving the government and going to elections. 54% answered that passing the law is not a reason for them, and 17% responded that they do not know.
The lack of trust of the right-wing public in its voters regarding the issue of the conscription law leads half of the respondents to declare that there is no party that represents their positions and principles in the current Knesset. The respondents are divided between 53% who say there is a party in the Knesset that represents them and 47% who say there is none. Most respondents among those who indicated that there is no party representing their views in the Knesset (64%) noted that the conduct of the coalition parties on the recruitment issue has an impact on this.
To the question 'Do you think the government's handling of the conscription law aligns with its self-definition as a right-wing government?' Close to half of the respondents (43%) answered that the government's handling of the conscription law does not align with its self-definition as a right-wing government, 37% think it does, and 20% do not know.
Shai Saguy, one of the initiators of the Right-Wing Organizations Union Conference: "The survey results prove that both the right-wing public in Israel and the entire nation are opposed to a discriminatory and unequal conscription law and support the call for the Haredim to share the burden." The conscription law is not right-wing, and it cannot continue like this anymore.
Religious Zionists and right-wing Zionist organizations are stopping their silence and uniting to stop the institutionalized evasion. At the conference, we will present the true security vision of the Zionist right and delve into the issue of the recruitment outline and how we, the true right, stop and prevent unequal legislation.
The survey was conducted on November 28-29, 2024, and 400 Jewish respondents aged 18 and older, who do not identify as ultra-Orthodox and define themselves as right-wing, participated. The survey was conducted to examine various issues related to the positions of the Zionist-right public in preparation for a conference on the subject. The maximum sampling error in this survey is 4.0%.
