Israel Matzav

Olmert can't fool all of the people all of the time

Maybe Israelis aren't so stupid after all. A series of opinion polls released today shows that most Israelis regard the Annapolis gang rape as a failure.

Asked whether the summit succeeded or failed, 50 percent of respondents in Yediot Aharonot's Dahaf poll said it failed, 18% said it succeeded and 32% said they did not know.

The numbers were similar in Haaretz's dialogue poll, where 42% said it failed and 17% said it succeeded.

A Gal Hadash poll broadcast on Channel 10 found that 20% believe it succeeded and 42% think it failed.

In a Ma'agar Mohot poll on Israel Radio, 56% of Israelis said it was too early to judge the summit. But of those who had an opinion one way or the other, 15% said it succeeded and 29% said it failed.

That sounds pretty clear to me. The polls also show that Shas' voters want it to leave the government, but Yisrael Beiteinu's voters want it to stay in.

The Israel Radio poll asked Shas and Israel Beiteinu voters whether their party should leave the government because of the summit. [The problem with this kind of poll is that anyone can identify themselves as a Shas or Yisrael Beiteinu voter. CiJ]

Sixty percent of Shas voters said yes, up from 50% in a poll by the same company two weeks ago, while 30% said the party should remain. By contrast, 71% of Israel Beiteinu voters said the party should stay in the government, up from 53% two weeks ago, and 27% said it should leave.

A source close to Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman said, "The poll showed that the public is not stupid, and the voters realize from the way that Lieberman toned down the summit, that he can have a lot more influence from inside the government." [And Boro Park determines every US Presidential election. CiJ]

A Shas spokesman said it was not new that the party's voters were more right-wing than its leadership. He said the party had succeeded in toning down Annapolis and now its goal was to tone down the post-Annapolis negotiations. [And besides, we have to make sure that our voters in Beitar and Kiryat Sefer aren't included when they freeze all building in all of Judea and Samaria. /Fantasyland. CiJ]

"Our departure [from the government] is getting closer, but it all depends on how serious the negotiations on Jerusalem become how much money and how many ministries we stand to lose because of new elections [revised by CiJ]," the spokesman said. "We are staying for now, even if it's not what our voters want according to the poll."

Here comes what the current government fears more than anything else: If there are elections today, guess who becomes Prime Minister:

The Dahaf poll asked Israelis who they thought was the most fitting candidate to be prime minister. Thirty-four percent said Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu, 17% said Barak and 14% said Olmert.

Barak responded to his failure to rise in the polls in a speech to the Labor executive committee at the party's Tel Aviv headquarters. In Labor's past election victories, he said, the party also trailed far behind in the polls a year before the elections.

In his speech, Barak praised the summit in depth and sounded more convinced than ever that he will have to break his promise to reconsider Labor's presence in the government when the Winograd Report comes out in the next month or two.

"Sixty years after the UN partition plan, the political and demographic situation require two states for two peoples," he said. "Labor and I will do whatever is necessary to make this dream come true."

Barak received backing for remaining in the government at the event from his ally, National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, and from one of his top critics in the party, MK Ephraim Sneh.

"The main reason we entered the government was to ensure the restart of the diplomatic process," Sneh said. "We have an interest in this government continuing, even though there are people in our party who hate Olmert more than they love peace."

"Being in the opposition is only good if you want to clear your throat and sing in the opera," Ben-Eliezer added. "In order to get things done, you have to sit in the government."

When they shoot at us, we will know how to respond cower in fear and run away.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:13 PM