Poll: Netanyahu's Performance During Fire Actually Strengthens His Support

Yesterday, I blogged about the comparison made by 3 Haaretz journalists comparing Netanyahu and the Carmel fire to Bush's dealing with Katrina--and the mixed reviews they gave. I noticed that The Bibi Report had a number of posts suggesting that Netanyahu had in fact done a good job in dealing with the fire, but I was wary that the selection of articles quoted was biased.

Now, The Bibi Report has the results of a poll indicating that the public is satisfied with Netanyahu's response to the Carmel fire--and are more supportive of him:

Walla Poll: Netanyahu strengthened following the Carmel Fire, Public satisfied of rapid response to crisis

Increase of support for Benjamin Netanyahu and the ruling party Likud after the fire in Carmel, A Survey conducted by the Research Institute "Maagar Mochot" [home page] for Walla News reveals that if the elections were held today, Netanyahu-led Likud would win 32 seats, an increase of five seats compared to previous elections.

The public is Demonstrating satisfaction with Netanyahu's performance and functioning during the fire crisis - Netanyahu gets 78 points out of 100 possible -a very high grade of satisfaction in relation to the Israeli public of its leaders. It seems that the public appreciates the rapid response to the crisis, and that Netanyahu's own public relations offensive in recent days has achieved its goal.

According to the post, the survey was conducted by telephone, by the Research Institute "Maagar Mochot", which is headed by Professor Yitzchak Katz--using a sample of 502 respondents, representing the Israeli adult population (ages 18 and over), The maximum sampling error is 4.5%.

There are likely to be more polls and surveys, so it will be interesting to see if these results hold up. As it is, Kadima is spinning the results:

Nachman Shai MK (Kadima) found an explanation to the strengthening of the PM survey: "This is a natural response in times of distress of the public rallied around the government. After the disaster become clear circumstances, we can see very different results in the polls

In any case, Netanyahu has apparently learned from the experiences of Bush and Obama and has not only avoided the pitfalls, but by emulating the stronger approach of Mayor Giuliani, Netanyahu appears to have avoided the recriminations that have been coming out and has come out ahead.

Still, unlike Giuliani, I don't think Bibi is about to get knighted.
He should be thankful that for now at least he remains untarnished.

According to the survey, the public does hold Interior Minister Eli Yishai responsible for the Carmel fire:

The survey also found that the public sees the face of Minister Eli Yishai responsible for the failure of the fire, also expressed in the weakening of the party he heads.

However, that number is 40%--which made for the following spin:

In contrast, Shas gave their own interpretation of the results: Roy Lhmnovic, a spokesman for Interior Minister Eli Yishai, said that "if 100% of Israel's media can influence only 40% of the public, it means that 60% of respondents believe that the Minister Yishai is not guilty, and as time elapses this figure will only prevail."

The Walla article on the poll is available, in Hebrew, here.
The spin will only get more feverish in the days to come.

Technorati Tag: Netanyahu and Carmel Fire.