Haaretz-Dialog Poll / Likud, Labor, Shinui voters back Sharon

Haaretz-Dialog Poll / Likud, Labor, Shinui voters back Sharon

By Yossi Verter

Barring any dramatic developments in the next few months, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has a good chance of being the next premier as the leader of the largest party, according to the Haaretz Dialog poll conducted this week.

Supervised by Professor Camil Fuchs, the poll examined personal status of Sharon and that of his party, Kadima, according to Israeli voters.

Haaretz reported this week that if elections were held today, Kadima would receive 39 Knesset seats, compared to 22 for the Labor Party headed by Amir Peretz and 12 to the Likud, which has yet to elect a new leader.

The transitions from one party to another have barely changed in recent weeks. Some 60 percent of Shinui's voters have moved to Kadima while 10 percent have gone to Labor. Some 62 percent of the Likud's voters also have moved to Kadima, as have 42 percent of Labor's voters. Kadima also gained considerable support among first-time voters around the age of 18.

Sharon maintains a huge lead over all his rivals when it comes to his suitability to be prime minister - 43 percent compared to 15 percent for Peretz, 13.5 percent for Netanyahu, and single-digit percentages for Mofaz and Shalom. In a previous poll, Sharon was deemed most suitable to be premier by 47 percent, while Peretz received 18.5 percent followed by Netanyahu with 10 percent.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/655783.html

cause i at this point have no idea who to vote for......

first some history: i've always voted labor or left of it ...last time voting for shinui with their secular agenda:

what we've got so far:

labor: peretz reminds me of a remenent of the "workers party from the 1930s"....his experience is only on the "workers side" with little experience with any on the complexities of the sophisticated modern economy. Plus he shut down the israeli economy a couple of times...i have little patience for that. On security issues...his experience is zilch. Still he does have credit in terms of the social aspects in israel.

likud: whats left are the half crooks, extremists and those who "cant let go" (the hangeroners) nothing there....

kadima: with sharon as the head, things will get done...now what exactly that means I have no idea. Mubarek likes him.....and as a "rightest" he can handle the settlers. as he proved with gaza, plus hes got quite a few from labor: still nobody has any idea what hes going to do...and he will do it.

shinui: i still like what they stand for, though i dont know how much influence they will have, as it seems as a party they going to "shrink" quite a bit

left of labor?...i prefer shinui

right of kadima/likud...nothing there for me

the real party to vote for...which is not yet a party, just a grass roots movement:
http://www.directrepisrael.org/EN/index.html

Isn't it great that Israelis get the sort of clear ideological choices at the polls that Americans can only dream about?

The remnants of Likud, a coalition to begin with, is a depository of extremism. Whoever becomes the leader of Likud, and it is not certain at this time if Bib Netanyahu will win, is certain to reject any land concessions to the Palestinians and may support the retaking of Gaza. I will note that Sharon is not the one being blamed for the breakup of Likud, but the most extremist elements within it for their failure to compromise on the Gaza pullout. As critics have pointed out, Sharon took the bulk of Likud with him to Kadima.

The party that offers the most credible package on peace, security, and prosperity, will be the one that will fare best at the polls next year.