Former Communications Director Shlomo Filber Reveals Rejected 'Offer You Can't Refuse' from Pollsters

Shlomo Filber, former Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Communications, disclosed in an interview on Channel 14 that hours before the release of election exit polls about four years ago, he received a phone call proposing what he called an "offer you can't refuse." The offer involved joining a so-called "cartel of pollsters" to coordinate their polling results and appear together on screen. Filber said he rejected the proposal outright.

Filber explained that the pollsters aim to avoid any outlier results that would require explanations, stating, "No one wants to be an exception or give explanations, so they always align their results." He compared the pollsters' coordination to the intelligence analysis before the October 7 attacks, noting that all agencies had access to the same data but interpreted it differently.

The interview was conducted by Yaara Zared and aired recently on Channel 14. Filber's revelations shed light on alleged coordination among polling firms to present unified election results, raising questions about the transparency and independence of polling data in Israel.