Poll: Right-wing voters more undecided than Left

Likud, Israel Beiteinu could have grabbed 7 mandates from Kadima had they clearly opposed a Palestinian state.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
elections voting cards 248.88 AJ (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
elections voting cards 248.88 AJ
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
More right-wing voters have yet to decide whom to vote for than left-wing ones, a poll released on Sunday by the right-wing grassroots group Mattot Arim shows. Forty-three percent of respondents opposed the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank, while 35% said they supported it, according to the telephone poll of 1,106 undecided voters carried out on February 2-3. Mattot Arim said that a number of right-wing parties such as the Likud and Israel Beiteinu had ambiguous positions when it came to a Palestinian state. According to the poll, the Likud and Israel Beiteinu could have grabbed seven Knesset mandates from Kadima had they clearly articulated opposition to a Palestinian state. In the last day before the election, parties that clearly oppose the creation of a Palestinian state, such as the National Union, Habayit Hayehudi and Shas, could gain votes at the expense of the Likud and Israel Beiteinu, Mattot Arim said. According to the poll, 58% of Israel Beiteinu voters would change their vote if they thought their party would truly support the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Similarly, 56% of the Likud voters, 43% of Shas voters, 31% of Kadima voters, and 29% of UTJ voters would switch their support if they thought their party would support such a state. The strongest opposition to a Palestinian state came from the National Union voters, where 92% did not want a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This was followed by Shas, at 79%, UTJ at 73%, Likud at 72%, Habayit Hayehudi at 62%, Israel Beiteinu at 60%, Kadima at 36%, Labor at 36% and Meretz at 6%. In the opposite vein, the highest levels of support for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, 100%, came from the Arab parties, followed by Meretz at 94%, Labor at 53%, the Pensioners Party at 50%, Kadima at 46%, Habayit Hayehudi at 38%, Israel Beiteinu at 25%, Likud at 15%, Shas at 9%, National Union at 8% and UTJ at 0%. Overall, 51% of those polled opposed the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, 32% said they favored it, 8% said they were not sure and 9% had another solution. Some 52% said such a state would lead to rocket attacks, 22% said that it would not, 11% said it might, and 15% gave a variety of responses. The study had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.