According to the Russian-language ‘Newsru’ website, following his resignation from his senior cabinet post and the coalition, support for Avigdor Lieberman among Israel’s Russian-speaking community has increased.

According to the poll released by the site, Lieberman ranks as the most suited candidate for the position of Prime Minister among the Russian-speaking tzibur, with 30% backing; as opposed to the second-place candidate, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, with only 15% support.

Many Israelis view Lieberman’s decision to leave the cabinet a politically-motivated strategic one, and according to the poll, he succeeded in drawing back the Russian-speaking community, which boosts his politically viability.

A large-scale Internet survey conducted by the Russian-language website shows support for Lieberman has risen considerably in the last month, in the background of his disagreements with the prime minister and his criticism of government policy regarding Gaza. 55% of those polled expressed support for Lieberman’s decision to withdraw from the coalition, and 81% said they agree with his claim that the ceasefire and the arrangement in Gaza is “surrender to terrorism.”

This is a periodic survey of ‘Newsru’, a leading Russian-language news site, with 5,742 respondents. According to the poll, Lieberman’s criticism of Gaza’s policy has permeated the Russian-speaking street in the past month, and there is a dramatic erosion in the prime minister’s status. Lieberman is the preferred candidate for the post of prime minister according to the poll, with 30% support, while Netanyahu comes with only 15% support. For the sake of comparison, in a survey conducted a month ago, Netanyahu led the index with 37%, while Lieberman settled for second place and received only 13% support.

In the previous survey, the Likud was the most popular party in the Russian sector – with about 28.5% of the vote, and Yisrael Beitenu was in second place with only 27%. Now a revolution has taken place and Yisrael Beitenu has returned to the leadership position. If elections were held today, according to the new poll, Lieberman’s party would receive 45.5 percent of the votes in the Russian sector – a significant increase from the 27 percent support for a similar poll last month. The overall assessment of the prime minister’s performance and the functioning of the government has also declined significantly in the last month. The average score for the government’s performance dropped from 3.2 to 2.5 (on a scale of 1-5) and the score for Netanyahu’s performance as prime minister fell from 3.5 in October to 2.8 today.

Traditionally, the Russian voice has tended to lean towards the political right, but in the 1992 and 1999 elections Russian votes were significant, led by the Labor Party headed by Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak respectively. The rate of voting among Russian-speaking Israelis is lower than the average in the national population, and only about 60% reached the polls in the last elections. In the elections for the 20th Knesset, Yisrael Beitenu and the Likud each received five seats from Russian-speaking voters. Yesh Atid received two seats, Machane Tzioni between one-and-a-half and two seats, and Kulanu and Meretz both received between a half and one seat each.

According to the poll, if elections were held today, the results would be as follows among Russian-speaking voters:
• Yisrael Beitenu: 8-9 seats
• Likud: 2-3 seats
• Yesh Atid: 2 seats
• Bayit Yehudi: 1 seat
• Zehut (Moshe Feiglin): 1 seat
• Im Tikvah: 1 seat (new right-wing party)
• Machane Tzioni: less than 1 seat
• Meretz: less than 1 seat
• Kulanu: less than 1 seat

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)