I agree on the first point. As to the second one, well, many countries do not offer voting rights to prisoners or even to ex-prisoners; Israel is very progressive in this respect. With no law prohibiting prisoners from voting, there is no much difference between Mr. Amir and other prisoners, so it's not so much about "what people think" but about what the law says.

There was certainly some of this. In fact, a year ago I attended a very interesting talk in which the guy proved, using pretty cool statistical tools, that allowing ex-offenders the right to vote would overturn at least two presidential elections and 7-8 senatorial ones.