Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, a resident of Tel Aviv, lost in most geographical areas of the country except for Gush Dan and Haifa. Kadima's strength in Tuesday's election came on the heels of the well-heeled of Tel Aviv and Herzliya, who also have been out of the range of Grad rockets.
An examination of the results contradicts Livni's election campaign claim that Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu's policies are geared to weaken the poor and that his desire to topple Hamas is bad for security.
The Negev, Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem and most Jewish urban areas in the Galilee favored Israel Is Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu) and the Likud.
Her one-seat lead, which may be erased after the counting of votes of soldiers and diplomats, was shouldered primarily by voters in Tel Aviv, who backed her with 34 percent of the votes, compared with 19 percent for the Likud and 15 percent for Labor. The final election results will be published here on Thursday night.
In Kfar Shmaryahu, perhaps the wealthiest community in the country and home to several billionaires, the town voted 49 percent for Kadima, 19 percent for Labor and 16 percent for Likud.
Similarly, Livni won 28 percent of the vote in Haifa and 37 percent in Herzliya, a wealthy city slightly north of Tel Aviv. Kadima won one-third of the votes in Rishon LeTzion, south of Tel Aviv, in the resort city of Eilat and in Modi'in, an up-scale new city between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
In virtually every other urban area, Kadima fell behind Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu. In Jerusalem, Netanyahu's Likud party won 24 percent of the vote, more than twice that of Kadima. Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) collectively won 34 percent of the vote in the capital.
Even Rehovot, a well-heeled city but which appeared to be the next city in line to be targeted by Hamas rockets before Operation Cast Lead, favored the Likud by a narrow margin over Kadima.
Ashkelon, Ashdod, Afula, located between the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Coast, Tzfat, Tiberias, Kiryat Shmona and Katzrin in the Golan Heights put Likud or Yisrael Beiteinu in first place.
Following are the percentage results from other selected areas:
Likud Yisrael Beiteinu Kadima
Ma'aleh Adumim 45 15 13
Arad 18 32 23
Beit Shemesh 22 12 6
Kiryat Gat 26 25 15
Nahariya 27 22 26
Akko (Acre) 22 22 12
Hadera 28 19 26
Ariel 45 32 9
Be'er Sheva 28 23 20
Sderot 33 23 12