Game Over or what? Likud Beiteinu is gaining strength while
Labor is weakening, in the latest Haaretz/Dialog poll conducted 4 days after the Knesset lists were submitted to the election committee. Tzipi Livni, while siphoning votes from Labor and Yesh Atid,
has not managed to attract even a single Knesset seat's worth of
votes from the National camp. Nor has Amir Peretz's last-minute enlistment to
Hatnu'ah changed the party's standing in the polls.
In response to the question,
"Who, in your opinion, will be the next prime minister: Benjamin
Netanyahu, Shelly Yechimovich or Tzipi Livni?" 81 percent of the respondents answered
"Netanyahu."
On the question of the
candidates' suitability to be premier - a critical question in any
election - Netanyahu beat out the pretenders to the throne by nearly
inconceivable numbers. When asked to chose between Netanyahu and either
Livni or Yechimovich, 64 percent said he was the most suitable candidate.
In comparison, Livni got 24 percent, and Yachimovich took 17 percent.
"It makes Yacimovich
and Livni seem laughably arrogant in depicting themselves as candidates
for prime minister," writes Yossi Verter in Haaretz.
Likud-Beiteinu would receive 39 projected seats, if elections were held today, while Labor falls from 20 to 17 seats, Livni's Party with 9 seats and Lapid's Yesh Atid with six projected seats only.
