New York: A new Israeli poll has found that an overwhelming 77% of Israelis are dissatisfied with the performance of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The poll of 420 Israelis, taken by the Dahaf Institute, showed 47% of respondents ranking Olmert’s performance as “very poor” and 30% ranking his performance as “fairly bad.” Only 20% graded Olmert’s performance as “good” and only 1% regarded his performance as being “very good.” Additionally, 69% of the survey participants said that the Prime Minister’s leadership skills are not good. To the question, “How would you rate Olmert’s resilience under pressure?” 62% of the respondents said he does not deal with pressure well, while only 37% believe Olmert deals well under pressure ( Jerusalem Post, January 3).

Other recent polls show Labor leader and Defense Minister Amir Peretz also faring badly in the estimate of the Israeli public. A telephone poll of 503 adult Israelis (including Israeli Arabs) conducted by Maagar Mochot [‘Brain Base’] under the direction of Prof. Y. Katz for Channel 10 Television ‘Kol Haboker’ shows that only 2% of the Israeli public believe Peretz should be Labor leader. This poll ranked Peretz a distant fourth behind Ami Ayalon (33%), former Prime Minister Ehud Barak (30%) and Ofer Paz-Pines (12%) (Israel Channel 10 Television, ‘Kol Haboker’ program, January 7, Independent Media Review & Analysis, January 8). A new poll in the Maariv newspaper also shows that Israelis prefer as Labor leader Barak (30%), Ayalon (23%) or Paz-Pines (18%) to Peretz (12%) ( Jerusalem Post, January 10).

Additionally, a Dahaf Institute poll of 501 Labor Party members shows that 66% of respondents believe Peretz should resign as Defense Minister ( Yediot Ahronot, January 5). The new Maariv poll shows that 48% of Labor supporters prefer former Prime Minister Ehud Barak as Defense Minister, 29% prefer Ami Ayalon, while only a mere 4.8% prefer Peretz (Jerusalem Post , January 10). (Peretz also came off badly in the earlier Dahaf poll, which showed that if Prime Minister Olmert removed Peretz from the post of Defense Minister, 45% of respondents would have an improved appreciation of Olmert).

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