"[The haredi political parties] United Torah Judaism and Shas have made the wide public hate them after many years of aggression and extortion."
Ynet reports:
…[A] new survey reveals that 80% of Israeli Jews are in favor of a civil government [i.e., no haredi political parties in the governing coalition] with an agenda focusing on freedom of religion and an equal share of the burden.
The survey, commissioned by the Hiddush association for religious freedom and equality, was conducted by the Smith Institute among 500 respondents – a representative sample of the adult Jewish population in Israel. The maximum sampling error was 4.5%.
Sixty-eight percent of Habayit Hayehudi voters were also in favor of such a government (26% said they were very supportive and 42% said they were pretty supportive of the idea).
In addition, even 39% of Shas voters voiced their support for a civil government.
In parties affiliated with the centrist-leftist camp, the support level was close to 100%. All Labor, Hatnua and Meretz voters and 99% of Yesh Atid voters said they were in favor of such a government.
According to Hiddush CEO Rabbi Uri Regev, the fact that an overwhelming majority among Likud Beiteinu voters supports a government that will advance freedom of religion and an equal share of the burden shows that "the era in which haredi parties were perceived as natural coalition partners is over.”…
In previous Knessets, the chairman of the Finance Committee was mostly a representative of the United Torah Judaism faction. The survey's last question tried to find out whether the Jewish public is in favor or against continuing this tradition.
About two-thirds of the Jewish public (67%) were against giving the job to a UTJ lawmaker, and one-third were in favor. Eighty-eight percent of seculars were against the idea, while 97% of haredim were in favor.…
"United Torah Judaism and Shas have made the wide public hate them after many years of aggression and extortion," Rabbi Regev added.…