Almost half of Israelis ready for gay PM - poll
By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
Less than a month after a murderous attack at a center for gay youth rejuvenated dialogue about tolerance in Israeli society, a recent poll published over the weekend indicated that nearly half of all Israelis are "ready for a gay prime minister."
Hebrew-language daily Yediot Aharonot published an article Friday in which 25% of those asked said that they were certain that they were ready for a gay minister, and 19% said that they thought that they were ready.
A similar number, however, to those who said that they were certain that they were ready, said that they were definitely not ready for such an eventuality.
In the poll, 13% said maybe, but that they were not sure; 7% said that they didn’t think so, and 11% did not answer the poll.
MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz), who is himself gay, said that the poll proved that the country was ready for him to be elected prime minister.
But in response to the poll, National Union Chairman Ya’akov Katz told Yediot that "I have a son who is a farmer. He has sheep. He says to me: Father, if the sheep were only male, the world would die. There would be no more sheep. The natural tendency of man is to allow the world to continue to exist. So a man who comes and says ’I hold an orientation that does not allow for the perpetuation of the world,’ could such a man be prime minister? Could a man be prime minister who loves to sleep with sheep? With horses? Can a man whose orientation is for horses be prime minister? Can a man who likes girls aged five be prime minister?"