Olmert under pressure in Israel

Israel National News:

Following perceived mismanagement of the war, Israelis believe top government and defense officials Olmert, Peretz and Halutz should be replaced. Voting tendencies are shifting from left to center.

Recent polls reveal that the public deems Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert unfit to continue serving his post.

According to a poll published Friday in the Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot, 71 percent of the public believes Olmert is no longer competent to lead the country.

Sixty-three percent of Israelis believe that Olmert failed in managing the war in Lebanon, and should consequently resign.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz fared even worse than Olmert, with 74 percent saying he did not manage the war properly. Only 20 percent surveyed believed Peretz should remain in his post, and merely three percent believe Peretz, previously Israel’s top Labor Union chief, is suitable for the defense portfolio to begin with.

IDF Chief of Staff General Dan Halutz was also faulted by the public. Just over 54 percent of those surveyed believe Halutz should resign for Israel’s failure to defeat Hizbullah’s terrorist army.

Support for the current leftist government coalition is weak as well, with only 19 percent saying the current coalition should remain in power. Only 27 percent, however, favor early elections.

...


Jerusalem Post:

Israelis have shifted rightward after the war in Lebanon and right-wing parties would dramatically increase their power at the expense of Kadima and Labor if elections were held now, according to public opinion polls taken this week.

A Ma'agar Mohot poll, broadcast on Channel 2 on Thursday evening found that if the election was held today, the Likud and Israel Beiteinu would each win 24 seats, Kadima would fall from 29 to 14, and Labor would fall from 19 to only 9.

According to a different Ma'agar Mohot poll taken few days ago for the newspaper Israeli, Labor would become the sixth largest party after the next election. Kadima would win 23 seats, Likud 20, Israel Beiteinu 15, Shas 13, the National Union-National Religious Party 12 and Labor only 12.

A Smith Research poll broadcast on Channel 2 found that over 50 percent of Israelis were undecided. The poll predicted 16 seats for Israel Beiteinu, 14 for Likud, 11 for Kadima and just 10 for Labor. The Smith poll found that the Likud could win 20 seats if its candidate for prime minister was former IDF chief of General Staff Moshe Ya'alon, who returned to Israel from a fellowship in Washington on Thursday, and not Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu.

In a Shvakim Panorama poll broadcast on Israel Radio on Thursday, 29% of Israelis polled said their preferred defense minister would be Ya'alon, 17% preferred former defense minister Shaul Mofaz of Kadima, 10% said former prime minister Ehud Barak and less than 5% said current defense minister Amir Peretz.

A Teleseker poll published in Ma'ariv last week showed the Likud rising from 12 seats to 20, adding to the trend predicting a rightward shift among Israelis.

...

Israel may be more polled than any place on earth. It must be that democracy thing. I think Netanyahu has a good chance of returning to power if a new election is called anytime soon. That will depend on how fragile Olmert's coalition is.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more