Likud officials blame Netanyahu for poor poll results

Haaretz ^ | Friday, March 13, 2015 | Jonathan Lis

[Star Traveler]

Officials in PM's party aren't waiting for the election results: To them, it's already clear the campaign was a 'colossal failure,' thanks to Netanyahu.

Likud officials aren’t waiting for the election results. On Wednesday, following less than favorable polls, senior officials labeled the election campaign a failure, and blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the party’s poor showing in the polls ahead of Election Day on Tuesday.

“The Zionist Union will be larger than Likud after the election. This, it seems, is already a fact. The question is what the gap between the two will be. Even if we manage to form the next government, this campaign was a colossal failure. Netanyahu is primarily responsible,” said a senior Likud member.

“Everything went through him during this election season, and the situation isn’t good. The election campaign didn’t function. Netanyahu kept Likud ministers far from decisions,” the senior party figure said. “His excessive focus [on himself in the campaign] and his lack of faith in the party’s Knesset members prompted him to staff the campaign with people who haven’t proven themselves.”

Another Likud official said, “Netanyahu was shown to be a very weak card in this election. He decided to put himself at the front, and forgot that he has an excellent team of ministers and MKs behind him. The public hardly saw them. It turns out the public is weary of Netanyahu, but he didn’t think that was a good enough reason to scale back his presence in the campaign."

[outofsalt]

From the analysis you link it would seem that the fat lady has not yet sung. I do hope the, “anybody but Bibi” crowd is over polling and fails to coalesce into a majority.

I don’t really know how all the minor parties play together but it seems there is hope.

[Star Traveler]

Well, that’s all any of us can do ... just wait for the results of the election, and then see who is going to form the government.

[SunkenCiv]

Looks like the anti-Likud media shills at Ha’aretz are quoting an anonymous source that they probably invented.

[Star Traveler]

There have been Likid members sniping at Netanyahu, and Netanyahu also fired his Defense Minister who was from Likud. There ARE members in Likud who would definitely be against Netanyahu, in place of another Likud member to lead them. It’s not a “made-up” thing ...

— — —

Prime minister says deputy defense minister helped Hamas with his comments on Gaza operation; Danon: Public is with me.
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Netanyahu-fires-Deputy-Defense-Minister-Danon-who-was-highly-critical-of-Gaza-strategy-362930

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday attempted to silence his critics on the Right by firing his deputy defense minister, Danny Danon, from his own Likud Party.

The decision came after Netanyahu was attacked all day long for his decision to accept an Egyptian- brokered cease-fire with Hamas. In addition to Danon, he faced sharp criticism from Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, Bayit Yehudi head Naftali Bennett, and other politicians inside the Likud.

But Netanyahu’s associates said Danon had crossed a redline by saying on a visit to the South that Hamas had humiliated Israel and was once again setting conditions for Israel’s policies.

[depressed in 06]

Was dumBO backing the Zionist Union?

[Rome2000]

In a series of interviews to TV and radio channels, newspapers and news websites this week, Netanyahu hammered home the message that voting for the Likud was the only way to avoid a left-wing government in Israel.

“The rule of the right is in danger,” Netanyahu wrote on Facebook earlier on Friday.

“Left-wing and media elements in Israel and abroad have conspired to bring [Zionist Union leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni] to power illegitimately, by means of slander at home and unprecedented money from abroad.”

The prime minister added that the only way to ensure that the left does not succeed is to “close the gap in the days that remain before the election.”

[Star Traveler]

The professional campaign people who work with liberals went over there to work with the left. I don’t think Obama sent them out from the Oval Office. That kind of action is “one-off” ... :-) ...

But then again, you can bet Netanyahu is getting help from the “right” over here. In fact, perhaps we should have organized that Netanyahu help a little better!

[piasa]

There’s nothing stopping you from posting articles, so instead of kvetching go find and post some.

[tbw2]

Does this mean Netanyahu’s party is winning or losing?

[Star Traveler]

Losing ...

[Star Traveler]

Be sure to look this over, so you understand the process ...

What you need to know about Israeli elections but were afraid to ask
http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election-2015/1.646418

[tbw2]

What are the odds their liberal party does nothing, so Iran takes the action we’re afraid of?

[Tzfat]

Losing

The election is Tuesday. You call that pro-Netanyahu? You are the worst of friends. But then again we know you are not really a friend.

[Pox]

If the left in Israel dominate and take power in the country, then so be it. Let the do the dumbest things possible, such as giving up land for “peace”, which is suicide.

Cut off all aid to Israel if the left grabs power and follows the edicts of Obama. Let them suffer their decision.

[Star Traveler]

Things are complex in Israeli politics ... just look at this, to give you an idea ...

— — —

Ex-Israeli generals target Netanyahu’s security image
http://azjewishpost.com/2015/ex-israeli-generals-target-netanyahus-security-image/

Polls show that on the defense issue, Israelis trust the prime minister more than his chief opponent, Isaac Herzog of the center-left Zionist Union.

Commanders for Israel’s Security is hoping to change that thinking. The group — a collection of 186 retired generals, including former chiefs of the Mossad and the Israel Defense Forces — says nothing would be worse for Israel’s defense than a Netanyahu victory in Tuesday’s election.

Members charge that Netanyahu missed a key opportunity to improve Israel’s security posture after the conflict in Gaza last year, and say he lacks the mettle to handle the dispute with the Palestinians and improve relations with the United States.

“Bibi in his whole life hasn’t made decisions, doesn’t initiate anything,” said Brig. Gen. (ret.) Asher Levi, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “At the end of Protective Edge we had an extraordinary chance to make some kind of regional pact with the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia and Egypt to fight Iran and extremist Islam. He didn’t do it.”

Despite his efforts to portray himself as the leader best poised to ensure the security of Israel, Netanyahu has had to fend off increasingly vocal criticism from former leaders of the defense establishment.

At a rally in Tel Aviv last week, Dagan issued a harsh rebuke of Netanyahu’s leadership before a crowd of 40,000. Yuval Diskin, the former director of the internal security service Shin Bet, has come out against Netanyahu’s handling of the Iranian nuclear threat and the Palestinian conflict. Former Shin Bet director Yaakov Peri, former IDF Intelligence Commander Amos Yadlin and former head of the IDF Southern Command Yoav Galant have all joined opposing parties ahead of the election.

“Israel is today at a low point unlike any since the state’s founding,” former Mossad director Shabtai Shavit says in a video released in late February by Commanders for Israel’s Security. “Eternal war is not a strategy.”

— — —

Of course there are those who counter this portrayal ... but the thing to see here is that there is significant opposition to Netanyahu and that it’s not a fluke, but also exists in the Israeli Defense establishment.

It’s sort of surprising to see this!

[Political Junkie Too]

Is this an attempt at astroturfing a groundswell against Netanyahu in the last days? That's what Obama's media psyops organizers would do. Make the voters think that the tide is turning against Netanyahu, and then convince voters that they want to be on the "winning" side.

-PJ

[Star Traveler]

The poster asked if Netanyahu’s party is winning or losing ... so you want me to lie about it and say he’w winning! ... LOL ...

On Free Republic we have our preferences for who wins and who loses ... but we’re not about LYING about it.

SORRY ... but supporting Netanyahu is not about LYING about it and saying he’s winning. Even Netanyahu himself knows he’s losing ... which is why he said he needed people’s vote to “close up the gap” so that he would have a shot at forming the new government. That’s from Netanyahu.

I hope you’re not going around and lying to everyone about what is happening in this election.

[Star Traveler]

Well, I wouldn’t go to the point of cutting off aid. You might as well throw Israel to the Muzzie dogs then, if you did that ... and I’m not about doing that ... :-) ...

[onyx]

Which side on you on?

[Star Traveler]

You might check this out ...

Final Knesset Jeremy Poll of Polls 2015 – Weekly Average #15/Final Prediction: Zionist Union 25, Likud 22, The Joint (Arab) List 12, Yesh Atid 12, Bayit Yehudi 12, Kulanu 9

Jeremy’s Knesset Insider
Your Israeli 2015 Election Center – Polls & Analysis
http://knessetjeremy.com/category/knesset/polls/