Poll: Public in favor of unity government
War and Peace Index says majority of Israelis unhappy with election results; 36% want to see Yisrael Beiteinu out of coalition and 77% would support letting murderous Palestinian prisoners go to secure Gilad Shalit's release
The Israeli public would prefer its next government be a unity one, a War and Peace Index survey published Sunday revealed. The poll, which probed the public's sentiment following February's general elections, indicated that only a small percentage of the public was happy with the results.
The War and Peace Index is conducted by the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research. Published monthly since 1994, it is run by Prof. Ephraim Yaar and Prof. Tamar Hermann and is compiled of a monthly telephone survey of 600 Israeli citizens representing the various sectors in Israeli society.
Only 17% of those participating in the survey said they were happy with the election's results, as opposed to 43% who said they were disappointed. Nevertheless, 90% said that given the chance to vote again, they would not change their choice.
Among the non-voting public, 30% said they would have voted for Kadima and 27% said they would have voted for the Likud, keeping the former's margin advantage over the latter.
Given a choice between Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, 37.5% opted for Livni while 37.6% chose Netanyahu. Factoring the sampling error into the results, the two maintain a tie.
As for the future coalition, 36% of those polled expressed a preference for a unity government made up of the Likud, Kadima and Labor, 22% opted for a Likud-led rightist coalition and 16% would prefer a coalition sporting the Likud, Kadima and Yisrael Beiteinu.
77%: Shalit's release precondition to truce
Segmenting the results further, those who voted for any of the religious parties – Shas, United Torah Judaism, the National Union and Habayit Hayehudi – said they would prefer to see a purely right-wing coalition; while Meretz and Labor voters said they would like to see a Likud-Kadima-Labor coalition.
When asked about the candidate most suited to be named the next defense minister, 45% chose current Defense Minister Ehud Barak, 14% chose former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon (Likud), 13% opted for past IDF Chief Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) and only 10% named Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman as their favorite for the office.
The War and Peace Index also looked at the public's sentiments on Operation Cast Lead and the negotiations to secure the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
According to the data, 33% of the public were content with the manner and results of the Gaza campaign, while 36% were disappointed by it. Nevertheless, 56% said Israeli should have pushed the Gaza offensive pending Hamas' complete surrender, instead of yielding to international pressure and halting the fighting.
As for the subject of negotiating with Hamas, 45% of the survey's participants said the Israel should find avenues of communication with the Islamist group.
The numbers also indicated that the majority of the public – 77% – thinks that Shalit's release should be a prerequisite to any ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, and a similar percentage said they would support releasing Palestinian prisoners with "blood on their hands" in order to secure his release.
