Jewish Home, United Torah Judaism surge past Zionist Union, Yesh Atid pulls into statistical dead-heat with Likud
Less than two months after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu secured the support of Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party, expanding his coalition from 61 to 67 seats, a new poll shows a dramatic shift in support – and the possibility of a Lapid-led government.
The poll, conducted by Geocartographia for Kol HaZman, shows support for the current coalition fairly stable, with the six coalition members winning a combined 68 seats in the poll, compared to the 67 they currently hold.
Nevertheless, the survey showed a dramatic shift of support between coalition members and among opposition parties.
The ruling Likud party would, according to the poll, plummet from 30 seats won in 2015, to 21 mandates.
Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, on the other hand, would surge, rising from 11 seats to 20, beating its previous high of 19 mandates won in 2013.
Yesh Atid’s impressive showing in the poll marks a continuation of an upward trend since last year’s election. If the trend remains consistent, Lapid could very well become a viable candidate for Prime Minister.
Much of Yesh Atid’s increase comes at the expense of the Zionist Union – a joint ticket including the Labor and HaTnua parties – which would fall from 24 mandates to a paltry 10.
Another beneficiary of the Zionist Union’s decline is the far-left Meretz party, which would surge from five mandates to nine.
Also noteworthy is the surprising level of support for the haredi United Torah Judaism party, which would double in strength, from 6 seats to 12, by far above the party’s previous peak of 7 mandates in 2013.
The other haredi faction, Shas, on the other hand would continue its decline, barely passing the minimum electoral threshold with just four seats.
The Jewish Home party also enjoys a significant bump in the Geocartographia poll, doubling in strength from 8 seats to 16, mostly at the expense of the Likud. That would make the party a close third, just four seats behind Yesh Atid and five behind the Likud.
The predominantly Arab Joint List party would remain with 13 seats.
Despite gaining the Defense Ministry, Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party gained no ground in the survey, remaining stable at six seats.
Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu, which in other recent polls has suffered serious losses, retains most of its strength, dipping from 10 to 9 mandates despite the surge for his “centrist” rival Lapid
Actually, considering the circumstances this is the most plausible explanation. From the admission of the doctored Betsalem video, the DM calls to find the soldier guilty, the pressure of commanders, investigators, prosecutors and judges to make their boss Yaalon happy AND possibly cover up their own negligence….. deceit appears to be the name of the game… according to the preponderance of the evidence.
HMMMMMM…. here is my speculation on the facts.
First we have a DM instructing his military subordinates through public speech to find the soldier guilty. We then have the military subordinate investigators, prosecutors and judges falling over themselves to satisfy their most senior commander. As prosecutors tend to do, we then have the prosecutor offering a deal to the commanders going something like this:
If Azaria did not commit the murder then you commanders will have to be investigated for your negligence and complacency at the scene and your career will be over plus you might get some jail time. One quickly sees that in an environment and culture of corruption as enabled by the DM’s example it’s best to be a team player and not upset the boat.
I think we have a lot of “team players” helping to kick Yaalons ball to a goal… Mandebilt is the most crucial team player. Mandebilt is always telling the coalition about the law but for some very strange reason Mandebilt is unable to see what Yaalon did….. usually Mandebilt has good eyesight and quickly sees things…. but alas we must wonder what is really Mandebilt’s job? Is it only to keep us occupied with small potatoes.. investigations begin and end almost every two minutes…. occupying our thoughts and time so that Yaalon can slip out the back door to his new job at the foreign think tank in DC. The big crimes are obfuscated by the small.
How is it possible that the jewish victims of Yaalons crimes are still paying for his legacy.
Although I am elated to hear a voice in the wilderness critical of Yaalon’s behavior I am disappointed. Surely, Yaalons behavior, regardless of the guilt of any party in an investigation, bordered on the criminal. If it had happened once at Duma we could say perhaps it was a mistake, albeit still a criminal mistake possibly without intent. However, Yaalons abuse of authority and influencing of the justice system was repeated to the point of being serial. Yaalon kept making public statements at Duma and at Hevron, hammering home the guilt of the parties. At Duma Yaalon was satisfied with declaring guilt to the world which set off the current wave of revenge murders, but he became drunk on his power and doubled down on his crimes. At Hevron he did not even wait for the commencement of the investigation before he took to the airwaves to finger another victim, shouting repeatedly for all his military subordinates to hear, that the soldier is guilty.
Surely, Liberman can see that this is a serial criminal activity, intentional in nature, and not just a “huge mistake”. If Liberman really still beleives that Yaalon made “a terrible mistake” as he purports then why is he doing nothing about correcting the damage of Yaalons “terrible mistake” now that he has entered government and replaced Yaalon.? I could think of a number of things to do: instruct the AG to commence investigations into any possible criminal behaviors of politicians and IDF in abusing their position of authority to influence and obstruct justice; take the Hevron case out of the hands of the IDF which case has been corrupted by Yaalon and the chain of command; rethink his appointment of Eisenkot who appears to be one of those who jumped on the lynch mob
HMMMMMM…..
Liberman supports Eisenkot who appears to be part of the criminal lynch mob abusing their authority to influence the justice system.
Come on Liberman, put your actions where your mouth is… at the next coalition meeting call for the AG to commence an investigation of government officials abusing their position of authority to corrupt the natural flow of justice and free Yaalons prisoners. In fact, where are the voices of the other politicians for correcting Yaalons criminal mess?
Liberman, if you just talk and do nothing we must conclude that you are just releasing hot air balloons.
meanwhile back at the ranch:
Not only did the “jump to presume guilt” they also broadcast, as commanding officers of the IDF, to the world AND to all their key military personnel….investigators,prosecutors, judges… all military subordinates….. that the soldier must be found guilty prior to the start of the investigation. Of course, as obedient military subordinates in the chain of command they unsurprisingly agreed to have an “investigation” and “indictment” which complied with their commanding officers de facto public orders.
In the case of Yaalon we have a serial criminal activity whereby he has used his position of political and military authority to warp, bend, influence, and obstruct the natural course of Justice both at Duma ….. where we now have 3 arab vendetta arsons in the past year on the same family….. to the Hevron soldier… the poor sucker who got in the way of the megalamaniac.
In my view Yaalon should be in jail… in every civilized democracy he would have to resign, be investigated and obviously been indicted. His crimes are considered extremely serious in other democratic nations but in Israel they appear to be totally ignored by the justice system and the political authorities and parties… each for their own opportunistic purpose.
It is odd to me that Israelis have not clamored for an investigation and indictment. Every day we see Mandebilt initiate another investigation about which I can never remember due to the triviality of the “charges”. Someone who so easily initiates investigations of politicians for trivial pursuits should be the very first to recognize the serious serial criminal offenses of Yaalon. It is almost ludicrously funny how Mandebilt teeters and totters from make busy investigation to make busy investigation while completely ignoring the elephant in the room. Did Mandebilt forget the legal principles and the law, is he forgetful, is he incompetent, is he merely negiligent, or is he willfully negligent… one would have expected something from Mandebilt but it appears that his usually quick radar has broken.
Mandebilt appears to be mum… he sees nothing, hears nothing, knows nothing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp9BJxFHDYI
Poll means little since the coalition seems stable enough for the foreseeable future.