Some 70 percent of secular Jews in Israel are worried about preserving their way of life under Benjamin Netanyahu's new government, deemed the most religious and right-wing in the country's history, said an Israel Democracy Institute poll released Wednesday.
The survey, conducted by the Viterbi Center for the Study of Public Opinion and Politics, also found that about 75 percent of respondents believe that the influence of the ultra-Orthodox community on Israeli politics is very large or quite large compared to their share of the population.
On the other hand, 57 percent of respondents said that the influence of women and the LGBT community on Israeli politics is lower than their representation in the country's population.
Two months after the elections, there was an average 6 percent drop in optimism about the future of Israel's democratic government, from 46 percent in November to 40 percent in December.
Among Jews, the optimism rate fell from 48 percent in November to 42 percent in December, while among Arabs it fell from 34 percent in November to 33 percent in December.
Regarding Israel's international status, 85 percent of the left-wing respondents predict a change for the worse against 74 percent of the centrist audience. On the other hand, only 36 percent of right-wing Israelis believe that the country’s position will be undermined by the new government.