Political Polarization in Israel, 1992–2022

In recent years, increasing levels of political polarization in Israel have become a major source of concern. But is there clear evidence of such increased polarization among ordinary Israelis? In this chapter, we present evidence from 30 years of public opinion surveys in Israel and examine trends in ideological polarization as well as affective polarization (i.e., dislike across party lines). We find that all in all, the Israeli public is not more ideologically polarized today than in the 1990s. In contrast, levels of affective polarization have increased since the late 2000s and reached a record high in 2022. We conclude with discussing the implications of our findings for the current challenges facing Israeli democracy.