They may grouch at the result of Operation Protective Edge, but Israeli voters see no reason for an early election.
After two months of sirens and shelters, people in Israel just want quiet. They may not be happy at the results of Operation Protective Edge, and they may blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for responding feebly to the rocket attacks, but they are in no hurry to replace the country’s leadership. A Rafi Smith survey for “Globes” shows that 74% of the public do not think that the results of the operation should mean elections. The public is venting its sense of collective humiliation on Netanyahu in the polls. Support for the prime minister is falling, criticism of him is growing, but the public is not demanding his head. It prefers a stable regime to political uncertainty. It is tired of politicians’ promises, and prefers to let off steam, but again to vote Netanyahu.
Despite the in-house mud-slinging, only 6% of Likud voters would like to replace Netanyahu. The other 94% see no worthy alternative candidates in the Likud party. That is no surprise. If there are surprises, they are in the other parties. Yair Lapid, whose foreign policy pronouncements were not perceived as authentic, has seemingly failed to convince most of his voters: 86% of them oppose early elections. Even they apparently do not see him as a prime minister in waiting. More than half (66%) of the supporters of leader of the opposition Isaac Herzog, who did the rounds of the television studios calling for the election to be brought forward, do not identify with his demand.
But the really interesting figures are in the right-wing parties that have been challenging Netanyahu’s conduct of the operation. 70% of Habayit Hayehudi voters and 71% of Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu voters do not find in the bitter taste that the operation has left behind a reason for an early election.
Read more at GLOBES ISRAEL.
{Matzav.com Israel}
