Israelis regard Ehud Olmert as less credible than the leader of Hezbollah, a poll found.
Friday’s survey in Yediot Acharonot found that 49 percent of Israelis rate Sheik Hassan Nasrallah as “very” or “quite” credible, as opposed to 24 percent who say the same about their prime minister.
Fourty-two percent described the Hezbollah chief, who triggered last year’s war with the Jewish state by ordering the abduction of two Israeli soldiers on the border, as not credible. Seventy-four percent said that about Olmert, whom many Israelis blame for the setbacks – including the failure to kill Nasrallah – of the 34-day conflict, and whose government has been dogged by graft and sleaze scandals.
Another Israeli nemesis, Syrian President Bashar Assad, did less well in the Yediot credibility poll.
Sixty-two percent of respondents said they did not believe in peace overtures that Assad has made toward Israel since the Lebanon war, and 53 percent said they would be opposed to new rapprochement between Jerusalem and Damascus. Thirty-three percent said they do believe Assad while a greater number, 40 percent, said Olmert should talk to the Syrian leader.
The survey had 500 respondents. A margin of error was not given.
