People take part in a rally against the Israeli government in Tel Aviv, Israel.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
When Israel pushed through its contentious Budget last month, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, “This is a war budget and, God willing, it will also be the victory budget.” However, widely cited surveys suggest that most Israelis neither want a war nor a ‘victory budget’.
The Finance Minister’s emphasis on war highlights the tensions in West Asia. Since the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023, Israel has launched more than 35,000 attacks in the region. These include at least 18,000 attacks on Palestine and 16,000 attacks on Lebanon (Table 1).
Table 1 | Number of attacks carried out by Israel in select countries since October 7, 2023
Attacks include airstrikes, battles, disruption of weapons, looting property and shelling.
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The ceasefire, reached after 15 months of war, ended last month when Israel launched surprise air strikes across Gaza. Over 1,500 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire collapsed.
Survey results suggest that the Israeli government is at loggerheads with the citizens, as a significant share of them support the ceasefire. According to a survey by the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent centre of research and action, nearly 72% of Israelis said in February that the country should continue with the second stage of negotiations with Hamas (Table 2).
Table 2 | What Israelis said in February when asked if Israel should continue with the second stage of negotiations with Hamas
In February, at least half of Israelis held that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should accept responsibility for the events of October 7 and resign immediately. Nearly 73% of the respondents said that he should at least accept responsibility (Table 3).
Table 3 | Prime Minister Netanyahu has not accepted any responsibility for the events of October 7 October 7 and has not resigned. What do you think he should do? (asked in February)
Mr. Netanyahu’s declining popularity coincides with Israelis’ growing pessimism about their country’s affairs. In March, only 38% of the respondents said they were optimistic about “Israel’s democratic situation” in the foreseeable future, with over 59% being pessimistic about it (Table 4).
Table 4 | What Israelis thought about their country’s situation in the following areas in the foreseeable future (asked in February/March)
There is also a growing pessimistic view about Israel’s economy. In the February survey, before the Budget was passed, only 33% of the respondents were optimistic about the country’s economic situation in the foreseeable future; over 63.6% were pessimistic. After the Budget was passed, the share of those pessimistic grew further to 72.7%. In fact, close to 65% opined that the Budget was designed to a greater extent to serve the narrow interests of certain groups (Table 5).
Table 5 | Which of the following claims about the State Budget that was recently approved is correct? (asked in March)
Amir Yaron, the Governor of the Bank of Israel, also criticised the Budget, saying it would not bring down debt levels enough to offset the spending caused by the war. Israel’s fiscal deficit widened to 8.2% in 2024, its highest except for the pandemic year of 2020 (Chart 6).
Chart 6 | Fiscal deficit/surplus recorded by Israel in the last decade
This year, Israel’s outlay for the Ministry of Defence is $29.7 billion, the highest in its Budget proposal. It spent $31 billion in its operations with Gaza and Lebanon last year. The latest OECD report on Israel pointed out that military spending has significant downsides, as it competes with other forms of public spending.
Israel ranks among the last five nations when OECD countries are ordered based on their non-defence expenditures. Israel’s expenditure on health as a share of GDP is only 5%, lower than the OECD average of 7%.
Similarly, its expenditure on secondary education per student and social protection is also lower than the OECD average. The figures are for the latest year for which data is available.
Israel’s resumption of attacks has also been condemned by countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, and Ireland. While the U.S. administration remains an exception, data by the Pew Research Center shows that more Americans have an unfavourable view of Israel now compared to 2022.
Source: The data for table 1 and chart 6 were sourced from the ACLED database and the OECD Economic Survey: Israel 2025. The rest of the data are from Israel Democracy Institute’s ‘Israeli Voice Index’ survey conducted in February and March this year. The survey for March was conducted from March 31 to April 6. For February, it was conducted from February 25 to 28
Published – April 16, 2025 07:00 am IST