Israel’s Election Map: Rich Vote for ‘Generals’, Middle Class for Netanyahu

Blue & White leader Benny Gantz and Likud head Benjamin Netanyahu. AFP
Blue & White leader Benny Gantz and Likud head Benjamin Netanyahu. AFP
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Israel’s Election Map: Rich Vote for ‘Generals’, Middle Class for Netanyahu

Blue & White leader Benny Gantz and Likud head Benjamin Netanyahu. AFP
Blue & White leader Benny Gantz and Likud head Benjamin Netanyahu. AFP

A number of researchers have conducted a study on the results of the recent elections in Israel and figured out that the Israeli middle class voted for the Likud party while the rich voted for its rival Kahol Lavan or Blue and White party of Benny Gantz.

This study aimed at understanding why Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu has held the Israeli premiership more than any other ex-PM.

The study, published by Editor-in-Chief of Haaretz Newspaper Aluf Benn, revealed that “the rich vote Kahol Lavan, the middle class supports Likud and the poor are divided between the Joint List and the Haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism.”

These “four tribes” prove the division within the Israeli society. Elections have highlighted the tribal division, and because the state enjoys security and political and economic stability, the strength of both major parties was boosted at the expense of the smaller parties.

“The election doesn’t revolve around the prime minister’s corruption cases, the annexation of the Jordan Valley or even on religious exclusion or secularization. All these fiercely debated topics are merely cover for a class struggle between rival tribes,” Haaretz reported.

Israel’s index issued by the country's Central Bureau of Statistics divides Israel’s 1,183 communities into 10 distinct groups, from poorest to richest, Benn noted.

The study showed that Kahol Lavan was the big winner in the top 30 percent of communities, comprised of Tel Aviv and wealthy communities mostly in Israel’s central metropolitan area. The party of Gantz, a former general, took all of the top 10 percent, 95 of 97 communities in the second-highest decile, and 242 of 270 communities in the third-highest decile in the last election.

Meanwhile, Likud did not win any community in the top two deciles, and it was placed first in just 18 communities in the eighth decile (i.e. between the top 30 percent and the top 20 percent), most of them in the so-called "periphery," and some wealthier West Bank settlements, including in the Jordan Valley.

The upper-middle-class, comprising the seventh decile, is the battleground for the two parties with a shot at the leadership.

The sixth and fifth deciles are Netanyahu’s “base,” smaller urban centers in the periphery, like Eilat, Be’er Sheva, Ashkelon and Netanya. Together with dozens of settlements and communities where the right-wing alliance and Likud ally Yamina leads, these communities keep him in power.



Trade on Agenda as Trump Heads to Scotland for Diplomacy and Golf

 President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP)
President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP)
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Trade on Agenda as Trump Heads to Scotland for Diplomacy and Golf

 President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP)
President Donald Trump waves from the stairs of Air Force One as he boards upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP)

US President Donald Trump departed for Scotland on Friday for a mix of diplomacy, business and leisure, as a huge UK security operation swung into place amid planned protests near his family-owned golf resorts.

The president, whose mother was born in Scotland, is expected to split his time between two seaside golf courses bearing his name, in Turnberry on the southwestern coast and Aberdeen in the northeast.

Air Force One was due to arrive around at 8:20 pm local time (1920 GMT) with the president and White House staff, and Trump has no public events scheduled for Saturday or Sunday, the White House said.

However, he is due to meet with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the trip.

"We're going to do a little celebrating together, because we got along very well," Trump told reporters as he left the White House Friday, calling Starmer "a good guy" doing "a very good job".

He said they would discuss "fine tuning" the bilateral trade deal struck in May, and would "maybe even improve it".

But the unpredictable American leader appeared unwilling to cede to a UK demand for flexibility over reduced steel and aluminium tariffs.

Trump has exempted London from blanket 50 percent tariffs on imports of both metals, but the fate of that carve-out remains unclear.

"If I do it for one, I have to do it for all," Trump told reporters, when asked if he had any "wiggle room" for the UK on the issue.

The international outcry over the conflict in Gaza may also be on the pair's agenda, as Starmer faces growing pressure to follow French President Emmanuel Macron and announce that Britain will also recognize a Palestinian state.

- Protests -

Trump is expected to return to the UK in September for a state visit -- his second -- at the invitation of King Charles III, which promises to be lavish.

During a 2023 visit, Trump said he felt at home in Scotland, where his mother Mary Anne MacLeod grew up on the remote Isle of Lewis before emigrating to the United States at age 18.

Residents, environmentalists and elected officials have voiced discontent over the Trump family's construction of a new golf course, which he is expected to open before he departs the UK on Tuesday.

Police Scotland, which is bracing for mass protests in Edinburgh and Aberdeen as well as close to Trump's golf courses, have said there will be a "significant operation across the country over many days".

Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who will also meet Trump during the visit, said the nation "shares a strong friendship with the United States that goes back centuries".

He added it would provide Scotland with a "platform to make its voice heard on the issues that matter, including war and peace, justice and democracy".

Trump has also stepped into the sensitive debate in the UK about green energy and reaching net zero, with Aberdeen being the heart of Scotland's oil industry.

In May, he wrote on his Truth Social platform that the UK should "stop with the costly and unsightly windmills" as he urged incentivizing drilling for oil in the North Sea.