Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress this week has won him only a marginally increased level of support before Israeli elections on 17 March, with more than 90% of participants in one poll saying the speech failed to inspire them to change their vote.
The speech, regarded by the White House as a serious breach of protocol, was widely seen in the US and Israel as a risky political gambit by Netanyahu to win support for another term in office. But it appears to have had a limited impact so far on the election campaign.
According to the first polls to be conducted since the speech, Netanyahu and his Likud party have picked up support that could translate into one or two more seats in the Knesset, but failed to overtake the Zionist Union party led by Yitzhak Herzog.
One poll had the two main parties level pegging, and a second had Herzog still marginally ahead with just under two weeks until the vote.
In a poll for Channel 10, 7% of respondents said the speech had changed their voting intentions, compared with 93% who said it had not. Asked whether the speech had justified the damage caused to relations with the US, 29% agreed it had and 43% disagreed.
In a poll for Channel Two, 44% of respondents said it had improved or moderately improved their impression of the prime minister, against 43% who said it had not changed their view.
On Wednesday, Herzog said of his rival’s speech: “Netanyahu is known to be a good orator and I am always happy when we receive applause in Congress. However, it has no connection with the result. The bottom line is that this speech will achieve nothing.
“The citizens of Israel can be very pleased for a moment with the applause but in the long run Netanyahu is out of the picture, Israel is out of the picture. At the end of the day, the US has a presidential regime. The person who makes the rules on these matters is the president.”
