Israel Democracy Institute

And it shows up in different ways across the years, but it's been true for a really long time.

And there was a poll recently that came out from the Israel Democracy Institute where they asked, what are your top issues in the election? And if you look at the total sample of Israelis, Economic issues and cost of living topped the poll by only a little bit.

Security was right there, right behind it, basically tied.

But the top vote getter in that poll was economic issues, that people are having a hard time.

The service also included former hostages and Nova survivors, with one former hostage, Ron Braslavsky, sharing a poignant message about faith and freedom.

Separately, a new survey by the Israel Democracy Institute, or IDI, found that 74% of Israeli Jews fast on Yom Kippur, with 57% attending prayer services.

noting variations in observance across different demographics and communities.

In another development, an Israeli man, father of six from the ultra-Orthodox community, was detained and drafted into the Ukrainian army while returning from a pilgrimage to Yumen.

We are speaking with Dr Amir Fuchs from the Israel Democracy Institute.

So according to Israeli law, what are legitimate grounds for disqualifying a party from standing at an election?

Well, there are three grounds.

We talked about this before.

I tend to look, I recommend for anybody else who's interested in this data to look at the Israel Democracy Institute's regular tracking.

You can go on the Data Israel website where you can look up questions by keyword searches.

And I just keep track of every time they've asked the question, how do you identify yourself? They give us a one to seven scale.

So which direction do you think it went in, if you had to guess? Or maybe, you know, maybe you've heard me say this before.

I don't know.

OK, well, I'm here to tell you that if you track the week, you know, monthly polling by the Israel Democracy Institute on the eve of the elections or just after the elections, let's say in 2022.

You had about over 60%, I think about 63% of the Israeli Jewish public who identified as right-wing, just under a quarter who identified as centrist, and about 12% to 14% was the range of people who identified as left-wing.

I'm your host, Amanda Borchel-Dahn, joining you from Jerusalem for our weekly podcast delving into one issue facing Israel and the Jewish world.

I am joined this week by the head of the Israel Democracy Institute, Yohanan Plesner.

Yohanan, thank you so much for joining me from Washington, D.C. Hi,

Amanda.

So I'm in a capital, you're in a capital.

Potatoes, potatoes, right? And this week we are going to discuss, because the slates for the upcoming elections here in Israel have been shut, we're going to discuss three different issues facing Israel and how the different parties that are on the slate, there are 38 in total, how they may be addressing these top three issues.

So, but just to begin with, Yohanan, can you describe for our listeners and viewers what is the Israel Democracy Institute?

Well, thanks for the question.

It emphasises that the country's strength lies in recognising all citizens as partners in building the Jewish state, especially as the last hostage was brought home in January.

On a cultural and religious note, new polling data from the Israel Democracy Institute, as detailed by jpost.com. reveals that eight percent of adult jewish israelis have visited the pilgrimage site of rabbi natchman of breslov in human this comes as many religious israelis prepare for rosh hashanah traditionally spent at the rabbi's tomb despite ongoing safety concerns related to the russia ukraine war the report also touched upon an idf social media video later deleted that advised Haredi draft evaders on how to avoid arrest at Ben-Gurion Airport when travelling to Yemen.

I'm Noah Levi, thank you for listening to Israel Today ongoing war report.

Stay safe and informed.

And there was also, like, I'll just add to it, um, like a new-ish data point, because all of this is about the heads of the party getting a spot in the K- in the Knesset.

And there was a, a poll from the Israel Democracy Institute that came out yesterday that shows that that's not really a high, an important factor for a lot of voters.

It was, let's see, fifteen point five percent said the most important factor was the head of the party.

So, like, this, this is not a major draw, and yet that seems to be the logic behind a lot of these strange couplings.