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| Israeli voter casting his ballot |
The results (which
can be seen on the right margin) are as follows. Out of 207 people voting, the
clear winner is Netanyahu with 58 votes (28%). And clearly nobody likes
Liberman or Deri (except for one person).
The candidate coming closest to Netanyahu is Bennett with 48
votes (23%). This is followed respectively with Lapid at 38 votes (18%); Herzog
at 26 (12%); Gafni/ Litzman at 14 (6%); Yishai at 11 (5%); Gal-On at 5 (2%) ,
Deri at 1 (0%) and Liberman with 0 votes (0%).
My guess is that the results in Israel will look nothing
like this. The results of the election
are not yet available as of this writing. But I think it is fair to say
that at this point, the election is a toss-up between Netanyahu and Herzog (who
no longer has Livni as his partner in a rotating power sharing agreement - should he become the Prime
Minister).
What this poll does say is that of those people who read my
blog, a very small number voted. And of those who did vote, their preferences are
decidedly right wing. If one combines the votes of the right wing party leaders
on my ballot Likud, Jewish Home, and Yachad, you end up with 117 votes (out of
207 voters) preferring a government at least as right wing as Netanyahu. That means
56% of the people who voted want a right wing government in Israel. Even if you
leave out Yachad, you still have a majority of 51%.
There are many factors that influenced this vote that may
not have any bearing on how Israeli voters vote. For one thing, I asked everyone to vote - whether they are Israeli or not. It should also be noted that my
blog readers are all English speakers. And it is my guess that considerations like
the Israeli economy was hardly a factor for those who voted here. Most of us
voted security, I think, no matter what side of the political aisle we are
on. I’m sure that for voters in Israel,
the economy was a big item… and it could have easily influenced them more than security
issues do.
I am happy that there were people that voted for Gafni/Litzman
of UTJ (the Charedi parties). That tells
me that there are Charedim that read my blog. I think the 6% might even under
represent the actual percentage of the Charedim that do. Some may have voted for the man rather than
the party (which is what I asked for originally) nonetheless 14 votes went to
the 2 Charedi candidates. It should not be that surprising either that Lapid
got so many votes (38). If you like what they did up until now… and if you like
his list,(a list that includes Dov Lipman and Shai Piron people that I have
promoted frequently on this blog) then you voted for him.
What is somewhat surprising is the relatively low number of
votes Herzog got. While getting 26 votes gave him 3rd place, knowing
the liberal leanings of so many of the people that comment here frequently, I
am surprised that they didn’t at least come in 2nd. Could it be that
my readership is comprised more of righties than lefties? Who knows.
Anyway I just thought I would sum things up and compare it
to what happens in Israel. I wonder if there will be any surprises there? Stay
tuned.
