With the ceasefire in place, fragile perhaps, but nonetheless Operation Cast Lead has officially ended and the national agenda is rapidly turning back to the February 10th general elections for the 18th Knesset.

In Sderot, Likud emerges the victor with 27.7% of the vote, followed by Kadima with only 13%.  In the previous election, Likud only earned 9.9% of the Sderot vote and Kadima 11.7%.

Other parties in descending order of votes [in the Sderot poll] as follows;

Shas – 12.2% (previous election 14.7%)
Labor – 11% (25.3%)
Yisrael Beitenu – 10.2% (19.4%)
Yerukim – 7.3% (did not exist)
Meretz – 6.1% (5%)
Alei Yarok – 4.8% (did not exist)
Pensioner – 1.2% (1.1%)
Bayit Yehuda – 1.2% (1.1% as NRP)
Ichud Leumi – 0.4%
UTJ – 0.4% (1.3%)

The southern city’s Peretz Center was bustling with shoppers and visitors on Tuesday, after many residents remained at home for about a month due to daily rocket attacks. The visitors cast their ballot in the Yediot Achronot poll, which totaled 254 votes [not necessarily representing a cross-section of the area’s eligible voters].

In the previous general election, Sderot was the only development town in which the Labor Party received most of the votes.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)