Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gained some popularity points here at home, with polls showing an increase of 16% following his Sunday night Bar Ilan address. The polls shows the increase in popularity is across the board, including young and old and even the political left and right.

In May, when the government was addressing the biennial state budget, the prime minister’s popularity was holding at 28% but on Monday, the day after his policy address, he jumped to 44%.

According to Tel Aviv University’s Prof. Kamil Fox, whose statistics department conducted the poll for the daily Haaretz, 71% of the nation agreed with the content of the prime minister’s nationally televised address. It also shows that the prime minister is abandoning his right-wing mandate, opting to move towards the centrist camp, winning over 49% of Kadima voters and favoring Kadima joining the Netanyahu-led coalition government.

It also shows that the Likud Party, once the flagship of the political right-wing and nationalistic camp, has also abandoned the principles of its founding fathers, with 90% of Likud voters supporting the Bar Ilan address.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)