Israel Matzav

The polls: Nearly half the country still doesn't get it

JPost is publishing the results of two polls right now.

53% of the country wants new elections (meaning new Prime Minister and new Knesset) if Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert resigns. According to the Channel Two poll, 23% would want a new government but the same Knesset, and 11% would prefer that the current government stay intact.

Meanwhile, 26% believe that Binyamin Netanyahu of the Likud is the best candidate now to serve as Prime Minister. That doesn't sound like a lot, but the poll taken in the four hours after the release of the Winograd Commission's interim report shows:

Far behind Netanyahu were Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni with 9%, Ehud Barak (6%), Labor MK Ami Ayalon (5%), and Vice Premier Shimon Peres (4%.)

Israel Beitenu chair Avigdor Lieberman was the choice of only three percent of the public to take over the reins, billionaire Arkady Gaydamak had the support of two percent, and one percent of those polled believed that Defense Minister Amir Peretz was the best person to serve as prime minister.

Although at present I have only read the first 21 pages of the 171-page report (in Hebrew of course), my guess is that Ehud Barak will lose a lot of support once the commission's conclusions about his role in the flight from Lebanon come out. Tzipi Feigele Livni seems unlikely to come in for criticism in this report (except as a member of the cabinet generally) but she may well come in for criticism in the final report in July. The current report only deals with the first five days of the war.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:14 PM