Poll: 65%
Israelis don’t want Netanyahu as prime minister
Herzog and Livni
stake their claims to top post; Channel 2 survey finds 71% intend to vote in
March 2015 elections.
Almost two-thirds
of Israelis do not want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lead the next
government, a poll published Saturday by Channel 2 found.
The poll was
released as the leaders of Israel’s center and center-left parties talk of
building various alliances to prevent Netanyahu retaining his post after the
next elections. The Knesset on Monday is set to pass the second and third
readings of a bill to dissolve itself and hold elections on March 17, 2015.
Channel 2 has
reported several times this weekend that the elections could still be averted
if Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman supports a move to build an alternative
coalition in the current parliament, headed by Netanyahu, including the two
ultra-Orthodox parties. It said Saturday night that Liberman might be offered
the post of defense minister as an incentive. But Liberman’s office has denied
any prospect of such an arrangement.
Asked whether
they want the three-term prime minister to take office again after the March
elections, 65 percent of the 500 Israelis polled said they do not want
Netanyahu to continue running the country while 30% said they do want him to be
prime minister; 5% declined responding to the question.
In answer to a
separate question in the Channel 2 poll, conducted by Midgam, 36% said that
Netanyahu was the best suited candidate for the post of prime minister. The TV
report didn’t give figures concerning other candidates.
When asked what
party they would vote for if elections were held today, 39% said they would
vote the same as in the January 2013 elections, 27% said they would change
their vote, 17% were still deliberating, and 6% would not vote. Another 11%
said they did not know.
Keeping with
Israel’s generally high voter turnout rates, 71% of respondents said they would
definitely go vote in the upcoming elections, 24% said they were thinking of
hitting the polls on election day — which is scheduled for March 17 — 3% do not
think they will vote and 1% said they do not intend to cast a ballot. Another
1% said they did not know.
In the 2013
elections, 67.79% of eligible voters went to the polls, the highest figure
since the 1999 election. Some pundits, such as Al Monitor’s Mazal Muallem,
predict a lower turnout in 2015, citing “growing despair regarding Israel’s
political leadership.”
Hatnua head
Tzipi Livni and leader of the opposition Isaac Herzog at the Knesset on
November 12, 2014. (Photo credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
Hatnua head
Tzipi Livni and leader of the opposition Isaac Herzog at the Knesset on
November 12, 2014. (Photo credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
The results of
the survey came out amid feverish talk of an anti-Netanyahu alliance being
formed by Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog, Hatnua party leader Tzipi Livni and
possibly Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid.
In comments
Saturday, Yesh Atid’s former science minister Yaakov Peri did not rule out such
an alliance even if Lapid, his party leader, was not at its helm. What was
important, Peri said, was “to switch the leadership.”
Herzog told
Channel 2 in an interview broadcast Saturday night that he has the chance of a
lifetime to oust Netanyahu in the upcoming elections and form a center-left
government. He said it was “objectively logical” that he should lead a
center-left bloc.
On Friday,
Channel 10 reported that Livni and Herzog have discussed the possibility of
running together over the past few days. According to the report, Livni would
get the number two spot on the list and two more seats for party members Amram
Mitzna and Amir Peretz among the top 10.
Livni said
Saturday she’d be “happy” to join a bloc that would replace a Netanyahu-led
government. She told Channel 2 it was vital to bring down Netanyahu and that
the alliance of Netanyahu and Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett was
“destructive for Israel.” She also said she considered herself “ready to be
prime minister,” and that it was important that “someone with my positions” be
prime minister.
A Globes poll
gave a Labor-Hatnua alliance 24 seats, Channel 10 said.
Lapid is also
reported to be trying to woo Livni into an alliance headed by Yesh Atid,
Channel 2 reported Saturday night. Lapid declared on Wednesday that he was
competing to be prime minister, and said Yesh Atid would win the elections.
Meanwhile
Netanyahu was reported Saturday night to be seeking to move up the Likud
leadership primaries, set for Jauary 6, to late December, in part to make it
logistically harder for his former interior minister, Gideon Sa’ar, to make a
rumored return and challenge him.
On Wednesday,
the Knesset approved the first reading of a bill to dissolve itself, and party
leaders set new elections for March 17. The parliament is expected to ratify
the motion this coming week, sending Israel to the polls for the second time in
two years.
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