The Likud party has sailed past the Labor-Livni party in a new poll taken after early returns in the Likud primary elections Thursday night pointed to a more centrist list of candidates.

The survey for Walla! News by Teleseker (TNS) also shows that the Yisrael Beitenu party, headed by Avigdor Lieberman, has suffered sharp losses following the suspected bribe scandal revealed by police last week.

With ideological right-winger Moshe Feiglin off a realistic place on the Likud list of candidates, the Likud came up with 26 projected seats in the Knesset, while Labor-Livni remained stuck with 23.

However, an Israel Radio poll taken after the Likud primary elections still puts Labor-Livni one seat ahead of the Likud.

The TNS poll revealed that 40 percent of the respondents think that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is the best man to lead the government, and only 24.3 percent gave their support for Yitzchak Herzog, chairman of the Labor party, and his new sidekick Tzipi Livni. The two Labor party leaders agreed that they will be rotating prime ministers if their party forms the next government, which seems unlikely if the polls don’t change dramatically before the March 17 elections.

The Jewish Home party continues to remain with 16 projected Knesset Members in all polls, one-third more than it had in the outgoing Knesset.

A Globes poll taken before the Likud primaries, like the TNS survey, shows that the Yisrael Beitenu would win only seven seats in the Knesset if elections were held today.

Both the Globes and TNS polls give Shas a new lease on life since the leak earlier this week of a video showing the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who was the first and last word in the Haredi Sephardi party, trashing Aryeh Deri and favoring Eli Yishai, who now heads his own party.

Shas would win seven seats in the Knesset, according to TNS, and six according to the Globes poll, while Yishai would come up with nothing, according to both polls.

The standing of Yesh Atid, headed by Yair Lapid, and Kulanu, the new party founded by former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon, remain virtually unchanged, with each one  projected to win nine or ten Knesset seats.

Both polls give the left-wing Meretz party seven seats.

The bottom line is that Netanyahu will form the next government, and the Opposition may be even weaker than before.

The more that the merged Labor-Livni party cannot make headway, the more that Kahlon will mind his Ps and Qs to make sure he can get what he wants out of joining a coalition led by the Likud.

However, at this stage, a coalition of Likud, Jewish Home, Kahlon and Yisrael Beitenu still leaves Netanyahu four seats shy of a majority.

His choices are either or both of the Haredi parties because it is difficult to see Lapid and Netanyahu working together. If Lapid suddenly starts distancing himself from Labor and begins talking about the importance of Jews in Judea and Samaria, it would mean his ego finally is deflated, which would be the eighth wonder of the world.

But today’s polls are not the last word, and I am not going out on a long or weak limb to predict that Jewish home, headed by Naftali Bennett, will pick up more seats at the expense of Likud, Kahlon and possibly Yisrael Beitenu.

Readers of The Jewish Press surprisingly have given 52 percent backing for Avigdor Lieberman as their choice for prime minister, according to the responses 30 hours since the poll was published.

You still can vote here.

Assuming that most of our readers would label themselves “right wing” and “religious,” the results are a shocker.

Lieberman, chairman of the Yisrael Beitenu party, won a majority of 52 percent backing in answer to the question, “Who Do you Want as the Next Prime Minister of Israel?”

No less shocking is that the nearest rival trailed by a whopping 25 percentage points. Naftali Bennett, the current government’s Minister of Economy and the chairman of the Jewish Home party, received 17 percent backing, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was chosen by only 16 percent of our readers.

Yitzchak Herzog, chairman of the Labor party, received support of 3 percent of the respondents.

Several responses obviously were in jest. Former President Shimon Peres won 2 percent backing, the same amount given to Eli Yishai, the former chairman of the Sephardi Shas Haredi party, and Yair Lapid, chairman of Yesh Atid.

Tzipi Livni’s backing was only 1 percent, which is not surprising considering the make-up of our readers. Moshe Kahlon, former Likud Minister of Communications, also won 1 percent.

The poll obviously is not scientific but gives an indication that people are fed up with politicians who say one thing and do another. Lieberman, who is of all things Foreign Minister, is known for saying what he thinks, even if it not diplomatically correct, although he has somewhat moderated in the past few months.

Unlike Bennett, he is not in the religious camp.

Unlike Netanyahu, he does not hide his thoughts about Arabs. He has been in the forefront of the move to require all Israeli citizen to sign a loyalty oath, and he also has been the most outspoken leader to suggest that Israel trade land with the Palestinian Authority, taking sovereignty over areas in Judea and Samaria where there is a concentrated Jewish population, such as Maaleh Adumim, Gush Etzion and Ariel, and handing over Arab areas such as the “Triangle, near Netanyahu, to the Palestinian Authority.

He certainly knows very well that almost no Arab with Israeli citizenship would give up all of the benefits of living under Israel in return for being subject to a Palestinian Authority state that has shown no signs of being much different from most other Arab countries in terms of social justice and democracy, or lack of it.

Here are a few of the feedbacks to the poll:

“Netanyahu is a great leader,” a comment that brought a response, “Where have you been the last few months? Was there something unclear about three-month-old Chaya Zissel Braun (HY”D) getting murdered, Bibi responding with “We will respond harshly to future terror attacks”, tons of attacks happening in said future and then our government doing NOTHING???”

There were many comments in favor of Bennett and several for and against Lieberman.

The missing element so far is that there was virtually no feedback in favor of Lieberman, even though he won a majority of the votes.

if you have not voted, do so now, and maybe we will see a change in the results.

If the responses so far are even partially representative, Lieberman might be in better shape than the polls indicate, and Bennett and Netanyahu better watch out.

Please give the poll a few seconds to load:

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Select from the answers below the photo.

A poll of American Jewish voters carried out by the left-wing J Street lobby shows an overwhelming number of Jew support building in some Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

The results of the survey should be a wake-up call to President Barack Obama, who has surrounded himself with left-wing Jewish advisers and has given J Street a free pass to the White House while distancing traditional Jewish lobbies, particularly AIPAC.

J Street has been a consistent opponent of almost everything the Netanyahu government does, as reflected in President president’s holy ghost, otherwise known as the “Peace Process.”

A whopping 72 percent of polled American Jewish voters said they support construction in Jewish communities that are not outside the core settlement blocs. Twenty percent of that number back building for Jews in all of Judea and Samaria as well as Jerusalem.

Only 28 percent said Israel should freeze all construction in the same areas.

All of the respondents in the poll voted in last week’s mid-term elections. Nearly one-third of the respondents did not describe their affiliation with a stream of Judaism, while the breakdown for the others was 37 percent Reform, 20 percent Conservative and 10 percent Orthodox.

That means that the support for building in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria has deepened among Reform Jews, previously thought to be heavily left-wing and against a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.

A majority of American Jews polled also said they have a favorable view of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, contradicting assumptions that most Jews in the United States oppose him and his policies.

The survey also verified other estimates that 69 percent of American Jews voted for Democratic candidates last week, another indication that President Obama cannot assume that Jewish Democrats back his and J Street’s view that settlers are “illegal” and “illegitimate.”

The Obama administration’s constant pointing fingers at Israel for allegedly blocking a peace agreement appears to be wearing thin on American Jews.

While 85 percent support an active role for the United States in the Arab-Israeli conflict, slightly more than half of the respondents “oppose the United States playing an active role in helping the parties to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict if it meant the United States publicly stating its disagreements with Israel.”

In answer to the question, “Would you support or oppose the United States playing an active role in helping the parties to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict if it meant the United States exerting pressure on Israel to make the compromises necessary to achieve peace?” 54 percent replied in the negative.

The poll also showed massive support for Israel in the Protective Edge counter-terror war with Hamas this past summer. The 80 percent approval showed how little J Street’s lobby against Israel has influenced American Jews.

Most of its influence seems to have been felt inside the White House, and anyone thinking of running for the Democratic presidential nomination in two years will pay close attention to the poll.

Hillary Clinton is the most highly favored candidate among the Jewish who were polled, winning support of 66-69 percent if Jeb Bush were running as the GOP nominee, and 70 percent if Rand Paul were the Republican candidate.

The poll also showed that only 25 percent of U.S. Jews support the Boycott Israel-BDS movement.

As usual, Israel was near the bottom of the list of subjects that concern American Jews, but more significant was that “terrorism and national security” were the number four issue, after the economy, health care and Social Security/Medicare.

The Islamic State beheadings of two Americans, one of the them Jewish, and an increasing number of Islamic-linked attacks on American soil have brought terror closer to home and brought all Americans to better understand Israel’s refusal to consider sponsors of terrorism “peace partners.”

Reflecting the overall mood of the United States, 57 percent of American Jews “feel things have gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track” in the United States.

Nevertheless, Obama remains more popular among American Jews than among most other voting blocs. Fifty-seven percent either “somewhat” or “strongly” approve of how Obama is handling his job as president and 53 percent approved the way Congress is functioning.

Makor Rishon ran a fascinating poll this week, asking Israelis for their opinions on the current status quo on the Temple Mount, as well as who is responsible for the recent violence in Jerusalem.

1) Do you know what the status quo currently is on the Temple Mount?

Know: 61%
Don’t know: 22%
Might know, but not sure: 17%

2) Do you support removing the restrictions on Jews on the Temple Mount?

Against removing restrictions: 34%
Support removing restrictions: 37%
Don’t Know: 29%

3) If an arrangement were set up on the Temple Mount like it is in the Tomb of the Patriarchs, such that there is separation between Jews and Muslims, would this calm the situation?

It would create more conflict: 37%
It would calm things down: 40%
Don’t know: 23%

4) In your opinion, who is primarily to blame for disturbances over the past few months in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount?

Arabs: 55%
Jews: 19%
Police: 10%
Don’t know: 22%

4a) Same question, results broken up by sector:

Secular:

Arabs: 60%
Jews: 28%
Police: 12%

Hareidi:

Arabs: 80%
Jews: 5%
Police: 15%

Religious:

Arabs: 71%
Jews: 2%
Police: 27%

Arab:

Arabs: 5%
Jews: 65%
Police: 30%

The poll was held by telephone on the 4th and 5th of November. 501 people answered above the age of 18.

First Published at Jewish Business News

All the way at the bottom of an article in Haaretz about the Jewish voters by and large maintaining their loyalty to the Democratic party, you’ll discover another classic: U.S. Jews are enamored with Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, more than any other person alive.

American Jewish voters did not change their voting behavior on Tuesday’s mid-term elections, and favored Democrats over Republicans by a 69%-28% margin, according to a new poll released on Wednesday by the left-leaning J Street, Haaretz reported.

The poll results included several contradictory results, which should be of concern to the J Street folks, if they’re looking beyond the headlines:

84% of American Jews prefer a deal with Iran over war

85% support an active American role in the Arab-Israeli conflict

73% support U.S. pressure of both sides

47% approve of pressure on Israel “to make the compromises necessary to achieve peace”

80% support a two-state solution

28% of those polled said Israel should suspend all settlement activity in the West Bank.

So, now to the final paragraph:

The poll asked respondents to rate their feelings of warmth towards various personalities and institutions on a scale of 0-100, and the results, in descending order of their mean score were: Netanyahu (61), Jon Stewart (58), Clinton (57), Democratic Party (51), Barack Obama (49), Malcolm Hoenlein (45), Sheldon Adelson (28), Republican Party (28), John Boehner (25) and the newly elected and soon to be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (24).

Now, one word about the Jewish voter’s loyalties: Congressional elections are not national, they are run district by district, which means that in many Jewish centers across America Jewish voters are voting Democrat because the Democratic candidate is either running unopposed, or has been so entrenched in his position, the other side isn’t even trying to compete seriously.

This is true not just for Jews, but for all the other voting groups.

In fact, with that being our electoral reality, the 69% figure of Jews voting Democrats represents some loss in Jewish loyalty. Back in 2008, Obama received 78% of the Jewish vote.

And that was down from 1960, when JFK took a whopping 82% of the Jewish vote.

Anyway, someone should tell Bibi we love him, he could use it this week.