A pre-election nation-wide sampling of voter opinion indicated today that the dominant Mapai was likely to increase its strength in the November elections for a new Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, while the right-wing Herut may gain less than anticipated. Both projections conflicted with widely-held opinions to the contrary.
The poll, which also indicated a possible loss of votes by the left-wing parties, was conducted by the independent daily, Haaretz, which queried a sample of 1, 500 prospective voters.
The newspaper listed these percentages of the parties in the outgoing Knesset with the poll results Mapai 32. 6 and 38. 6; Achdut Avodah 8. 2 and 5. 4; Religious Party 9.1 and 8: 2; Agudas Israel 4. 7 and 1; Mapam 7. 3 and 3. 8; Communists 4. 5 and 2. 2; Progressives 4. 4 and 7. 6.
Political observers considered the figures on Mapai, Herut, General Zionists, Progressives and Communists–whose voters are distributed uniformly throughout Israel –as more reliable than the findings for Mapam, Achdut Avodah and the Religious Parties whose concentrations in collective and Orthodox sections might cause a slanting in the poll results.
The pace of campaigning for the November national elections for a new Knesset accelerated today as reports came in that scarcely a public hall in Israel was unused over the week end in the rush of political parties to present their bids for votes. In towns and settlements as well, members of Knesset bidding for reelection, sought support of voters, frequently by slandering the opposition.
Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, who spent his week-end in northern Israel, spoke at Safad, Tiberias and Kiryat Shmoneh. In between he found time for a personal visit to a young Bible quiz, champion, a Sephardic boy in Tiberias, with whom he chatted for almost an hour. During that chat, practically all the residents turned out for a look at the Premier.
Mr. Ben Gurion apparently revealed some sort of military secrets during his speeches because the Haboker, the organ of the General Zionists, criticized him for “using party platforms for revealing military secrets. ” The nature of the secrets was not mentioned by the newspaper although it was understood that the Prime Minister had hinted that Israel had purchased some new weapons.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
