As per my post from a couple days ago, Yossi Verter (who cheated by cutting and pasting his way to two stories in this morning’s Ha’aretz for the price of one) writes:
It is highly doubtful that the public would again give Sharon and the Likud 40 Knesset places. The threat is directed inward. History shows that prime ministers do not go willingly to early elections, but are instead dragged there, kicking and screaming, after they have lost power. Even Peres need not worry. The surveys show Labor under him gaining seats.
The other suggestion I made in that post was that I doubt that Sharon could get through the Likud primaries. Every newspaper in Israel, both on the left and the right, albeit for different reasons, is delighting in the troubles that Sharon is getting from inside the Likud. But no one is talking about his chances in a primary. It could be because more than just the Likud central committee votes in primaries and Sharon remains popular outside the central committee, but (a) his poll numbers in general have been slipping and (b) I’ve seen zero numbers on that question one way or another.
