Israeli Press
A Maariv poll finds most Israelis oppose bringing Ra'am into government
Graphic: Times of Palestine
Original Reporting
Fifty-five percent of Israelis oppose folding Mansour Abbas's Ra'am party into the next coalition, the Israeli daily Maariv led its Friday edition with a poll by the Lazar Institute with Panel4All — even as the seat map keeps both blocs short of a majority without Arab votes.
The survey gives Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar 23 seats to Likud's 22, with Beyachad — the Bennett-Lapid merger — at 15. The current coalition parties total 49 against 57 for the Zionist opposition, which reaches 61 only with Chili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel's Bayit Zioni party.
The Arab lists hold ten seats — Hadash-Ta'al at 5 and Ra'am at 5 — and the poll's headline finding lands directly on them. Only 20 percent back Ra'am's inclusion even if Yoav Segalovitz took the list's second slot; 25 percent expressed no opinion, the paper's Moshe Cohen reported.
The same survey found 54 percent oppose the published Gaza roadmap against 24 in support, with opposition climbing to 72 percent among coalition-party voters.
For Palestinian readers the two numbers describe one paradox. The bloc arithmetic runs through the Arab parties' ten seats, while a majority of the Israeli public refuses the only partnership that would let those seats govern — the kingmaker's chair, offered and withheld at once.
