Via Associated Press
Posted on 09/13/2024 9:24:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
An opinion poll published on Friday showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party would win the largest number seats in the parliament if an election were held now.
The poll, published in the Hebrew language Maariv newspaper, showed Likud winning 24 Knesset seats, against the 32 the party now holds. The National Unity Party led by former general Benny Gantz would receive 21 seats.
Via Associated Press
Though Likud would win the most seats, Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, which includes nationalist-religious and ultra-Orthodox parties, would lose any election held now, with 53 seats in the 120-seat parliament. The main opposition bloc would win 58-seats, according to the poll.
Earlier opinion polls taken after the start of the war in Gaza regularly showed Likud gaining only 16 to18 seats.
Netanyahu and Likud’s popularity fell drastically, as many Israeli voters blamed the Prime Minister for the alleged security failures of the military and intelligence apparatus on 7 October.
Members of Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, breached the Gaza border fence to attack Israeli settlements and military bases imposing a siege on the strip. Qassam and other Palestinian fighters were able to take 240 captives back to Gaza.
Some 1,200 Israelis were killed during the operation. Some were killed by Hamas fighters, while many were killed by Israeli attack helicopters, tanks, and drones, per the controversial Hannibal Directive.
Netanyahu and his coalition partners, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have refused to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would return the Israelis who are still captive in Gaza, preferring instead to continue the war that has killed a reported more than 40,000 Palestinians and destroy large swathes of the strip.
Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben Gvir established their ruling coalition following elections in late 2022. Israel’s next parliamentary election is not due until 2026.
TOI: Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in Gaza block a main road in Tel Aviv during a protest calling for their release, September 13, 2024. Flash90
The survey also showed Netanyahu's personal popularity is improving. Israelis responding to the poll said they preferred Netanyahu over any alternative potential candidate apart from former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who has retired from public life.
In contrast to Likud, Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party and Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party have fallen in popularity since October 7. Both parties therefore have an incentive not to leave the government and call for early elections, Reuters reported.
The Gaza genocide? What kind of trash is this article? It’s a war. Gaza attacked Israel on October 7 in one of the most gruesome surprise attacks in human history. Israel is destroying the enemy completely, no differently than we did with Japan and Germany. Garbage to call it a genocide.
Everyone is a Leftist over there.
Naftali Bennett seemed like a reasonable guy when he was the PM. So why did he retire from politics?
[Gaza genocide]
Otherwise known as FAFO (Fool Around, Find Out).
Men Matters
Who keeps singing the river to the sea song? There is the genocidal maniacs. Bibi called their bluff. He’s a leader.
Bennett ran to the right of Netanyahu but when given the opportunity he screwed his voters, joined with the far Left Meretz Party and was willing to essentially bribe the United Arab List $150 million to support him as PM.
And even then, he had to join up with know-nothing, stand for nothing Lapid’s party. Bennett lasted one year, then his partner Lapid lasted 6 months.
Bennett is a multimillionaire with strong American connections and nothing else to do. He’ll pretend to be a Righty again and try a comeback.
People keep trying to say Bibi isn’t popular.
Well, here they go.
They put up webcams sometimes in Gaza. I was watching one a couple days ago. There was no genocide going on. People were on their cell phones, driving cars, and walking around.
We can all agree if Israel wanted to exterminate the Gazans there would be none left at this point.
The war in Gaza started on Oct 7 with an act of willful and proudly publicly proclaimed act of genocide against the Jewish people by Hamas.
On Oct 7 Hamas terrorists committed genocidal atrocities that shocked the conscience of the world
Israel's response has been carefully crafted to root out the Hamas enemy with minimal collateral damage to the technically non combatant Gaza civilian population.
This is a very difficult job because Hamas is very open about it's use of Gaza's women and children as human shields.
Central to Hamas strategy is to embed itself in the civilian population and then to goad Israel into attacks against Hamas that create large numbers of civilian casualties and to use the deaths as collateral damage for propaganda purposes.
So, in essence, Hamas is committing genocide against the people of Gaza who they claim to represent.
They then try to blame this Hamas created genocide against their own people on Israel.
Regardless of what they say they are, The Cradle is pro Hezbollah. (Islamist Terrorists backed directly by Iran)
So, I call this propaganda. (like in our own MSM)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.