Posted on 12/25/2018 2:41:12 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
JERUSALEM—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will easily win a snap election set for April 9, according to an opinion poll on Dec. 25, the first to be published since the ballot was announced.
Netanyahu announced the early election on Dec. 24, appealing directly to voters for a fresh political mandate that could help him weather possible charges in corruption investigations. An election had not been due until November 2019.
The survey, published in Israel’s Maariv newspaper, showed Netanyahu’s Likud party winning 30 of parliament’s 120 seats, the same number it took in the last election in 2015, and a governing majority for a Likud-led right-wing coalition bloc.
The closest challenger, according to the poll, was a hypothetical party led by former Israeli army chief Benny Gantz, who has been widely touted as a potential center-left candidate.
Gantz has not publicly declared a political affiliation or any intention to run. The center-left Yesh Atid party led by Yair Lapid came in third in the survey, with 12 seats compared with 11 in the current parliament.
Netanyahu, now in his fourth term as prime minister, has been governing with a razor-thin majority of 61 seats in the 120-member parliament.
Netanyahu is enmeshed in three graft cases and denies any wrongdoing. He is awaiting a decision by Israel’s attorney general on whether to accept police recommendations to bring criminal charges against him.
The indictment decision had been expected within weeks, but some Israeli media reports said the attorney general could opt to delay the move out of concern he might influence the outcome of the election.
The Justice Ministry said on Dec. 24—after the early election was announced—that work on the cases would continue “independent of political events.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
“The survey, published in Israel’s Maariv newspaper, showed Netanyahu’s Likud party winning 30 of parliament’s 120 seats, the same number it took in the last election in 2015, and a governing majority for a Likud-led right-wing coalition bloc.”
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If it turns out to be the result, they pretty much wasted the Israeli voter’s money in having an election to keep thing as they already are. But wasting voters money is pretty much the universal constant wont of the political class.
At any rate, GO BEN!!!
The closest challenger, according to the poll, was a hypothetical party led by former Israeli army chief Benny Gantz, who has been widely touted as a potential center-left candidate.
Heh... IOW, Likud will pick up some seats? Thanks E. Pluribus Unum.
[ And this time Obama won’t be using US taxpayer dollars to fund his opponents. ]
But that would be election interference and collusion. The Democrats would be screaming for a special prosecutor and.....oh, never mind.
The election could easily force Netanyahu to form a government with Leftists. If he was going to compromise with those to the right of him, he could have done so already.
And he might not end up being the leader at all, with someone like Gilad Erdan or Yisrael Katz leading Likud.
Could be, the parliamentary system works differently than what we’re used to here. But I would hope the Israeli people possess a good sense of self-preservation.
Zionist Union could join Yesh Atid and be within a hair of the same number of seats as Likud given current poll numbers. ZU-YA could be deemed more likely to form a government, and adding only Kulanu could make it more stable than Netanyahu’s government has been.
There are a few “could happen” re:the results. I tend to look at the most likely from given information, including polling data and what I take as the given “feel” of voters.
I expected Trump to win the election, even before his nomination, going primarily by take of the “feel” of the general populace even though it contradicted almost all the polling/predictions. In this case, I don’t have the advantage of getting the feel, the mood, of the populace in general so I’ll take whatever polling data that may come down the pike.
And as I mentioned, the parliamentary system is a whole different animal than what I’m used to looking at. So, it could indeed be “who knows?”.
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