As reported by Ha’Aretz (December 18, 2002): In internal polls conducted last week on behalf of Herut by the Hanoch Smith
polling institute, the party surpassed the minimum threshold, garnering 2.4% of the vote. Polls commissioned by two daily
newspapers gave Herut one seat in the Knesset, while in Yedioth Ahronoth's "roving ballot box," situated this week in Jerusalem's
Mahane Yehuda market, the party picked up no fewer than five seats -- one less than National Union!

[Unseen in the report of this poll is the influence of the Yamin Israel Party, which joined the Herut list.  Yamin Israel is headed by
Jewish Press columnist Prof. Paul Eidelberg, Soviet Jewry activist Eleonora Shifrin, and Professor Israel Hanukoglu, former
science adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel.   Yamin Israel is distinguished for its comprehensive program for electoral and
institutional reform.  It has a very large Russian-speaking constituency, thanks very much to Shifrin whose Russian translation of
many Eidelberg articles have appeared in various Russian-language media.]
……..

[Also] a study by researchers Dr. Ami Pedatzur and Dafna Kanti that was published in Issue 20 of "Panim: Faces of Art and Culture
in Israel," a periodical that is published by the Teachers Union [reveals]:

(l) 73% of [Israel’s] idevelopment town residents, 87% of ultra-Orthodox and 76% of immigrants from the former Soviet Union
believe the government of Israel should encourage emigration of Israeli Arabs.

(2) 93% of ultra-Orthodox, but also 39% of development town residents and even 25% of immigrants from the former Soviet
Union believe "it would be better for all of us if the country were governed more by halakha than by the existing laws."

(3) 20% of the sample would consider voting for the Kach party that was founded by Meir Kahane if it were permitted to run in the
elections. Some 33% of ultra-Orthodox said they would vote for Kahane if they could.

(4) High levels of support for Kahanism [sic] were found among voters of the established political parties. Some 82% of Shas
voters and 50-70% of voters for NRP, Torah Judaism, National Union and Yisrael Beitenu, and even 32% of Likud voters believed
it would be best if "the state were governed by halakha and not according to the existing laws." The following represents the
percentages of Israelis who last voted for other parties who would vote for a Kahanistic list if they were able to: One Israel – 3%;
Likud – 33%; Shas – 52%; Shinui -- 15; NRP – 24%; Yisrael Beitenu – 50%, National Union – 50%, Torah Judaism – 24%.

Pedatzur and Kanti note that "while the studies from the mid-1980s indicated that most support for Kach came from settlers and
residents of development towns, but 15 years later, support by these two sectors has declined in comparison with the support of the
ideology among immigrants from the former Soviet Union, as well as in the Haredi public."

In certain respects, Kleiner is building a list that has elements in common with the status that Tommy Lapid's Shinui faction
fabricated for itself, albeit in a completely different area of the political map. Just as Lapid has vowed that he would under no
circumstances sit in the same government as the ultra-Orthodox, thereby fixing his position in the opposition, so too will Kleiner
never sit in a government based on founding principles that compromise on parts of the Land of Israel or the establishment of a
Palestinian state. On the other hand, Kleiner promises that if a narrow right-wing government is formed, Herut will not bring it
down, unless a Palestinian state is actually established, or territories are in fact transferred to an alien entity.