Posted on 3/23/2015, 1:31:02 AM by Dave346
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ‘gevalt’ campaign and media blitz that he kicked off Thursday evening had an immediate affect on the poll, even before the right-wing mass rally and the comments he had made on Election Day regarding arab voters “coming out in the droves,” Netanyahu’s pollster revealed on Sunday.
In an interview with John Catsimatidis on the ‘Cats Roundtable’ radio program, John McLaughlin, who served as a pollster and strategist to the Likud Party elections campaign, said that an internal poll conducted for the campaign Sunday night had Likud with 23 percent of the vote (28-29 seats).
McLaughlin attributed the rise to Netanyahu’s impromptu debate with Isaac Herzog on Channel 2’s ‘Meet the Press’ program Saturday night, and to the media blitz over the weekend.
The leaders of most parties had been interviewed in succession on Israel’s “Meet the Press” program. Towards the end of Herzog’s interview, Netanyahu, who was scheduled to go next, remotely, appeared on a giant monitor behind him. “The contrast between Netanyahu, standing coolly with an Israeli flag in the background, and the diminutive Herzog, in his studio seat, was not flattering to the challenger,” the New Yorker noted.
“Through the weekend Netanyahu rose,” the GOP pollster said. “Our last poll had Likud with 23 percent of the vote, and that’s what they got in the election.”
Netanyahu was criticized by Israeli leaders and US President Barack Obama for the comments he made on Election Day, which according to the pundits gave him him the enormous lead over the Zionist Union, granting Likud a whopping 30 seats in the final outcome. McLaughlin suggested that President Obama wanted to unseat Netanyahu. “What was not well reported in the American media is that President Obama and his allies were playing in the election to defeat Prime Minister Netanyahu,” he said. McLaughlin cited several examples of this, including “trying to organize the [Israeli] Arabs into one party and teach them about voter turnout, etc. There was money moving that included taxpayer U.S. dollars, through non-profit organizations. And there were various liberal groups in the United States that were raising millions to fund a campaign called V15 against Prime Minister Netanyahu.
“The State Department people in the end of January, early February, expedited visas for [Israeli] Arab leaders to come to the United States to learn how to vote … There were people in the United States that were organizing them to vote in one party so they would help the left-of-center candidate, Herzog, that the Obama Administration favored,” he added.
In the interview, McLaughlin also revealed that he was with Netanyahu when the Israeli prime minister got Boehner’s invite to address Congress. “I was there when he [Netanyahu] got the invitation. The invitation said ‘Bipartisan’ … I said, ‘What do you think.’ And he said, ‘I should take it.’ … All of a sudden, he was being shelled … The White House tried to derail it,” he said.
He added, “I think the Israelis will be relieved when President Obama leaves office. He’s a big negative over there. They’re very concerned about what this president might do before he leaves office. The President really overplayed his hand [in this election].”
President Rivlin met with the first group of parties, including the Arab List. Parties name their preference for PM. The Arab List did NOT name Herzog (they chose no endorsement). That eliminates Herzog from consideration officially.
Bayit Yehudi did endorse Netanyahu. Essentially, that means they will work out whatever dispute they have with Netanyahu over a Palestinian state.
Full interview here at 42 minute mark:
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/mclaughlin-obama-anti-netanyahu/2015/03/22/id/631785/
McLaughlin says Likud rose in the final week from 16 percent Wednesday to 23 percent Sunday.
I think that was heard wrong.
Tracking polls had been riding along at 22% or so (23-26 seats) for quite awhile.
http://knessetjeremy.com/2015/02/
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.