Israeli pollsters struggle to keep pace with social media
Following the unexpected results of the 2013 elections, can Israeli pollsters grasp the socio-economic concerns of young Israelis expressed online?
Two public opinion polls published this past weekend point to a dramatic piece of data that has been swept aside in the rush of information on the segmentation of the votes and the suitability of candidates for minister of defense.
In a survey published by Israeli TV Channel 10, supervised by veteran pollster Camil Fuchs, 53% answered that cost of living and welfare issues will be the main considerations that will influence their vote in the election. Only 24% answered that they will be influenced by security threats. This result, during a week that a diplomatic-security agenda dominated — starting with the attack in Syria attributed to Israel and continuing with the conflict between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama — is surprising. In a country where we’ve gotten used to the hegemony of security issues in every realm, this data suggests that deep changes are happening in Israeli voting patterns.
