{"id":331911,"date":"2026-10-10T05:48:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T05:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=331911"},"modified":"2026-10-10T06:16:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T06:16:38","slug":"support-for-israeli-far-right-surges-among-first-time-voters-poll-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=331911","title":{"rendered":"Support for Israeli far right surges among first-time voters, poll finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nadav Rapaport \u2013 Middle East Eye Oct 9, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Israel\u2019s far-right parties are among the most popular choices for first-time voters ahead of this month\u2019s elections, according to a new poll reported by Israeli news outlet Ynet on Friday.<\/p>\n

The poll, conducted among a representative sample of 543 Israeli voters aged 18 to 22, found that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir\u2019s Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party would win 8.88 percent of the vote, translating to 15 Knesset seats.<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich\u2019s Religious Zionist alliance would receive 8.09 percent, or 14 seats.<\/p>\n

Together, the two far-right parties would secure 29 Knesset seats based on voting intentions among first-time voters, according to the poll.<\/p>\n

They outperformed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s Likud party, which received 7.95 percent of the vote, equivalent to 14 seats<\/p>\n

Otzma Yehudit narrowly trailed former prime minister Naftali Bennett\u2019s Together alliance, which received 8.98 percent, or 16 seats.<\/p>\n

Gadi Eisenkot, a leading challenger to Netanyahu, was also close behind Ben Gvir. His Yashar party received 8.75 percent, translating to 15 seats.<\/p>\n

The Zionist Democrats alliance, the successor to the Labor Party that dominated Israeli politics during the country’s first three decades, polled at 4.99 percent, equivalent to nine seats.<\/p>\n

The Joint List, an alliance backed predominantly by Palestinian citizens of Israel, received similar support, with 5.23 percent, also translating to nine seats.<\/p>\n

In the 2022 elections, Smotrich and Ben Gvir\u2019s parties won a combined 14 seats, helping pave the way for what has been described as the most right-wing government in Israel\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Far right gains ground among young voters<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The poll suggests growing support for far-right parties among young Israelis ahead of the 27 October elections.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s Central Elections Committee estimates that around 500,000 new voters will be eligible to cast ballots in the upcoming vote.<\/p>\n

Just six years ago, in the 2020 elections, Otzma Yehudit secured only 0.42 percent of the vote, failing to cross the electoral threshold required to enter parliament.<\/p>\n

Now, Ben Gvir\u2019s Otzma Yehudit, Smotrich\u2019s Religious Zionist alliance and a new far-right party led by former army general Ofer Winter, Amcha Yisrael, are together projected to win more than 19 percent of first-time voters\u2019 support, according to Ynet\u2019s poll. Winter\u2019s party, however, remains below the electoral threshold.<\/p>\n

The parties are also polling strongly among the wider electorate. A survey published on Friday by the right-wing newspaper Ma\u2019ariv projected that the three parties would win a combined 18 Knesset seats.<\/p>\n

More broadly, 54 percent of first-time Jewish voters expressed support for the outgoing government\u2019s policies, according to the poll.<\/p>\n

Ynet\u2019s interviews with young voters offered a glimpse into the appeal of the far right, particularly its policies on settlements, Palestinian prisoners and territorial expansion.<\/p>\n

One young Israeli settler told the outlet that Smotrich had helped establish numerous farms and hilltop outposts in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to Smotrich, suddenly lots of farms and hilltop outposts\u201d had been established, the settler said.<\/p>\n

He also expressed frustration that Israel had not yet established settlements in the Gaza Strip following the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the biblical inheritance of our forefathers,\u201d he said, referring to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a place that belongs to me historically and divinely,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Another young voter told the Israeli outlet that he is considering voting for Ben Gvir\u2019s Otzma Yehudit, saying the far-right leader had done “important things, like worsening the conditions of the terrorists in prison and the death penalty”.<\/p>\n

He was referring to Ben Gvir\u2019s signature policy in Israel\u2019s detention facilities, which human rights organisations have described as torture camps, as dozens of Palestinian inmates have died in them due to inhumane conditions in the past three years.<\/p>\n

He was also referring to an Israeli law sponsored by Ben Gvir, under which only Palestinians convicted of deadly assaults will be executed.<\/p>\n

A potential voter for the Zionist Democrats alliance offered a more critical assessment of the government\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes wars are necessary, but there is unprecedented violence,\u201d the voter told Ynet, arguing that the violence was not leading towards \u201ca long-term political solution\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep losing our international legitimacy,\u201d the voter added, expressing concern over Israel\u2019s declining standing abroad amid its war on Gaza and escalating violence and displacement in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben Gvir and Smotrich\u2019s parties projected to win 16 percent of first-time voters. They will undoubtedly lend their support to Netanyahu’s Greater Israel project. Meaning that there will be no immediate let up of conflict in the region <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":331913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-331911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-posts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=331911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331912,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331911\/revisions\/331912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/331913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=331911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=331911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=331911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}