Posted on 03/25/2015 6:53:34 AM PDT by Star Traveler
TV pollster says surveys showed Likud trailing by 3-4 seats at noon on election day; then PM issued controversial Facebook post.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Election Day high noon appeal to his supporters to go out and vote to offset the “droves of Arabs” flowing to the polling stations may have played a decisive role in his victory, the country’s best-known political pollster indicated Wednesday.
Pollster Dr. Mina Tzemach told the Knesset Channel that, at noon on election day, March 17, her surveys showed Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Camp to be leading Netanyahu’s Likud by three to four seats.
Then, at 12:23 p.m., Netanyahu posted his controversial Facebook message warning that “the rule of the right is in danger,” that Arab voters were turning out in vast numbers, that they were being “bused to the polling stations by left-wing NGOs,” and that his supporters simply had to work harder to get out the vote “and close the gap.”
By 5 p.m., said Tzemach, the chief pollster for Israel’s most-watched TV station, Channel 2, the gap had indeed been closed: Herzog’s National Union and Netanyahu’s Likud were tied. And by 8 p.m., she said, Likud was ahead 28 to 26.5 seats.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...
As to whether Netanyahu's announcement made a difference ... it appears there could be arguments about that one, all day long. From the news at the time it appeared that Netanyahu and Likud both thought they were significantly behind, since he urged voters to "close up the gap". In fact, Netanyahu said that he needed voters to ALL vote for Likud and NOT the other "right"" or nationalist parties, or else the left, Zionist Union, would win!
The big gripe by the leftists here was that they thought Netanyahu was trying to "disenfranchise" the Arab voters by saying that ... as if they didn't deserve a vote at all, in the first place. Actually, Netanyahu was NOT saying that, as he AFFIRMED in his APOLOGY that he was not saying that ARABS should not have the same and EQUAL RIGHTS as Jews! He was merely trying to GET OUT THE VOTE on his side to overcome the big "get out the vote" on the Arab side (not to "disenfranchise" them!).
As it turned out ...quite a few ARABS voted for Netanyahu!
Netanyahu Apologizes for Remarks on Arabs, Says ‘I am Prime Minister of All Israelis’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3271111/posts
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night apologized for controversial comments he made on the eve of elections and if he caused offense to Israel’s Arab population.
“I know that the words that I said some days ago offended Israel’s Arabs. I did not intend at all that this would happen. I am very sorry about that,” he said when hosting representatives from Israel’s minority communities at the prime minister’s residence, including the leadership of Israel’s Arab communities.
Netanyahu emphasized to his audience: “I see myself as the prime minister of each and every one of you, of all of the citizens of Israel, without distinction over religion, race or gender. This is how it was, and how it will continue to be.” As the audience enthusiastically applauded his comments, Netanyahu continued, “I see all of Israel’s citizens as partners in building the State of Israel, which will be strong and united, for the benefit all of its citizens.”
News Flash: Bedouin-Arab Town Was Strongest Netanyahu Supporter in Elections [Israel]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3271117/posts
Deebo at Israellycool looks at some interesting statistics from the Israeli elections.
One of the facts reported is that the most pro-Likud town in Israel is the village of All Naim, where 77% voted Likud.
Al Naim is a Bedouin Arab town.
Why did they vote for Bibi? NRG went there and asked.
Until 1999 the Bedouin village was not known, and for years it waged a war against the Israeli authorities demanding recognition and minimum conditions for life such as electrical and sewage connections.
In the past two years, things have changed dramatically. Now there is a paved main street half a mile long as well as other roads and construction of over 80 houses. This week a contractor began work for laying a sewer line. “Within a few months we will have a village sewer and electricity and we are pleased,” says Nimer Naim, community leader.
Netanyahu’s win is convenient for Arab leaders [Israel & Iran]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3271474/posts
Analysis: The Egyptian, Jordanian, Saudi and Gulf state rulers trust Israel’s re-elected prime minister to handle the Iranian issue, and the Americans to pressure him on the Palestinian issue.
The Arab world, just like officials in Jerusalem and in the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, is monitoring the steps of the American dance which is casting a shadow on the elections results here. One can definitely say that the roof did not collapse on the Arab leaders’ heads when Netanyahu won. The elections here appeared odd, and if there was any attention, it focused on the joint Arab list, and that attention was limited too. Israel’s Arabs are still perceived as a strange entity, sort of collaborators enjoying a democracy which was not born in their region. Despite the potential, there is no chance that they will head the bridge to peace.
So far, we haven’t heard that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi or Jordan’s King Abdullah telephoned Netanyahu to congratulate him. On the eve of the elections, al-Sisi actually told the Washington Post that he talks to Netanyahu “a lot.” Abdullah is keeping quiet. He is stressed out because of the Islamic State which is sitting on his fences and the bloody clashes in Syria which are spilling very close to the Jordanian border. In recent days, Abdullah sent his foreign minister on an abrupt visit to Tehran. The last thing he needs is that the Revolutionary Guards’ long hands in Iraq will approach the kingdom.
There is a lot of restlessness in the new king’s palace in Saudi Arabia. Try to convince the White House that there is a huge difference between the Sunni majority in the Arab world and the Shiite minority which is pressing in Lebanon ...
...and the polling including the exit polls were so accurate! (pfff!!!!!)
IMHO yet another pollster who tries to save her name by finding an excuse for the skewed polls.
America’s Left-Wing Jews Ashamed of Israel’s Jews
Mar 24, 2015 — 10:11am
from Townhall.com by Dennis Prager
American Jews on the left were beside themselves last week. Israel’s Jews did something that utterly infuriated these American Jews: Israel’s Jews overwhelmingly voted for a man of the right (or for other right-of-center parties). And not just any right-winger, but the only leader in the Western world to publicly differ from their hero, President Barack Obama.
http://pro.wind-am.tritonflex.com/common/more.php?m=49&action=blog&r=1&post_id=1031
The funny thing about that is ... ISRAELI ARABS voted for Netanyahu, too ... :-) ...
Let’s just say that Netanyahu and Likud were SCRAMBLING as if they were true ... LOL ...
I read a similar article in Front Page; these Bedouins are wise people to be at peace with Israel.
Why do you suppose Obama wants to make voting mandatory?
We did “get out the votes” efforts, too ... right on Election Day, where we would call our voters and offer to drive them to the polls and back home again! ... :-) ...
There’s a moral to this story......
- The RAT game plan is always to ‘bombard lies and fear’ with ads, and then ‘bus in’ all their bottom-dwellers. Their game plan was to do the same thing for the Leftists in Israel.
- NETANYAHU (unlike the spineless Republicans) decided to call a ‘spade a spade’ and ‘out’ the opposition for what they were doing to get everyone to react and vote.
Funny how the same Democrats who criticize Bibi always tell Black voters here — out loud, usually in church rallies — to get out and counter the White vote. I’ve heard this firsthand at an even in Newark years ago.
They’re making an excuse to call Netanyahu and his supporters racist, because the peace & flowers leftists would’ve won, except for the response t Netanyahu’s racist demagoguery.
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