Polls continue to show a sharp slide in Kadima's public support, only five days before the election. A Geocartographic poll released today on Army Radio indicates that Kadima would receive 34 Knesset seats - exactly a week after a survey by the same institute showed Kadima receiving 43 seats. Other polls show Kadima receiving between 33 and 37 Knesset mandates.
A chief beneficiary of the drop appears to be the Yisrael Beiteinu party, led by Avigdor Lieberman. Some polls indicate it will receive 11 Knesset Members, overtaking Shas to become the country's 4th largest party. Lieberman's support comes largely from immigrants from the former Soviet Union, and he strongly opposes unilateral disengagements.
In an attempt to win votes back, Kadima's prime ministerial candidate, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, announced last night that any party that refuses to accept the concept of "inward-turning" - the name he has given his plan to carry out further unilateral withdrawals - will not be invited to join the government he expects to form. Olmert thus hopes to play on the desires of Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu voters, and, to a lesser extent, those of the hareidi-religious United Judaism Party (UTJ), to see their parties in the government.
In response, it appears that only UTJ has taken the bait. MK Avraham Ravitz of UTJ said this morning that his party is willing to join the government despite its disengagement plans, but would not vote automatically for future withdrawals. (He later denied saying this, insisting that he had said only that the Council of Torah Sages would decide; separate story to be filed soon.)
Shas leader MK Eli Yishai said this morning that he would recommend to his party's rabbis not to approve the party's joining of a government whose guidelines include further disengagements.
Lieberman of Yisrael Beiteinu came out swinging against Olmert's threat, saying, "This is how he talks now, five days before the election, but we'll see what he says five days after the election."
In the meanwhile, hundreds of volunteers for the "Moving Rightward" campaign continue to visit and call voters around the country, in an attempt to sway them not to vote for Kadima and further withdrawals that, they say, will endanger the country.
In response to a question by a chief "Moving Rightward" organizer, Susie Dym of Rehovot, Gush Katif's Rabbi Yigal Kaminetzky issued the following statement: "To all the dedicated people of kindness and giving who help the Gush Katif expellees every day - at present, the main issue is the elections. Everyone must work only for the elections. Whoever wants to help us, we will be happy to have you come again right after the elections."
MK Zevulun Orlev, of the National Union/National Religious Party list, responded to Olmert's statement:
"It shows that whoever votes for Kadima is voting for a left-wing government with Labor and Meretz, with Arab support. Religious and nationalist voters must understand that a vote for Kadima is a vote for Meretz. Happily, the Israeli citizenry will determine the results, and everything is still open."