A majority of Israelis, 63 percent, believe that political and personal considerations were behind a newly-forged deal to form a national unity government, according to the results of a poll published on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leader of Kadima opposition party, Shaul Mofaz, stunned the entire political spectrum the previous day with the announcement of their decision to ally, just hours after a bill to dissolve the parliament in order to bring about early elections won overwhelming support in its preliminary reading.

In a joint press conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu and Mofaz deemed the partnership, which makes for a massive 94-member coalition, as"historic," one that would enable to address critical issues confronting the country.

Mofaz, who recently described Netanyahu as"a liar," painstakingly emphasized that he was not seeking a senior government post, and that the country's welfare was at the heart of his decision to join forces with Netanyahu's Likud-led coalition.

But only 23 percent of the public believe that Netanyhu and Mofaz were driven by the national good, according to the poll conducted Tuesday by the Dialog Institute for the Ha'aretz daily.

According to the survey, Israelis are even more skeptical that the new government would carry out the main commitments outlined in the Likud-Kadima coalition agreement: endorsing legislation to impose compulsory military service on religious seminary students and changing the electoral system by the end of the year.

Half of respondents, 51 percent, said the government will not abide by its promise to draft the religiously observant, whereas 54 percent expressed disbelief that the current system of government would undergo structural changes until general elections are held in November 2013.

The poll was conducted under the supervision of Tel Aviv University's statistics department and included the participation of 506 people. The margin of error was 4.3 percent.

Ha'aretz tied its findings to the unity deal's timing-- just hours before parliament was scheduled to dissolve and four months before elections that would have seen Kadima's crushing defeat at the ballot boxes.

A poll conducted by Ha'aretz last week projected that Netanyahu would win a landslide victory if early elections were to be called, with 48 percent of respondents saying that he is most suited to lead the country. Mofaz, who is now due to become deputy prime minister and a member of the prestigious security cabinet, received a modest approval rating of six percent in that same poll.

In a related development, some 1,000 Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv Tuesday night to protest the Netanyahu-Mofaz deal, which earlier in the day sparked angry responses from opposition parties.

Tzipi Livni, who last week resigned her post in parliament after losing the leadership of Kadima to Mofaz in April, addressed the crowd, saying that"these young people deserve a different form of politics-- one of principles and not of survival."

The police, which declared the protest illegal, arrested several people, including reporters, in a scuffle that broke out when the group attempted to march toward Likud's headquarters.

Among the speakers in a smaller protest in the southern city of Beer Sheba was Stav Shafrir, one of the leaders of a mass social justice protest that last summer rattled Israel and forced Netanyahu to implement a host of social welfare reforms.

"People are angry... feel betrayed. Not just that they lied to us twice in 10 days, but that they betrayed us by creating a clenched, unbreakable fist around the policies we disagree with," Shafrir said, according to Ha'aretz.

Organizers said further protests were planned to take place on Wednesday. 

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