A poll published on Sunday by the Israel Television News Company showed that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party is gaining strength and would win 32 seats if elections for the Knesset were held today.
According to the poll, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party would receive 18 seats, down from previous polls, while Avi Gabbay’s Zionist Union would be left with only 12 seats, half of its current 24 mandates.
The mostly Palestinian Joint List would receive 12 seats, Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s Bayit Yehudi party would receive ten, the list headed by Orly Levy Abecassis would win six, the United Torah Judaism faction seven, Yisrael Beiteinu five, Meretz six, Kulanu seven and the Shas party five.
Moshe Feiglin’s Zehut party would wind 1.2 percent of the vote, falling well below the 3.25 percent threshold to enter the Knesset.
Finance Minister Moshe Kaḥlon (Kulanu), Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) and Education Minister Bennett attended a meeting with the prime minister on Sunday and, according to sources close to the ministers, the group emerged convinced that Netanyahu intends to advance the next election to February or March 2019.
After hearing Netanyahu speak about how difficult it would be to resolve disputes with UTJ over military conscription for ḥaredi students, they received an impression from him that he would prefer an early election.
When poll participants were asked which of the following personalities is best suited to lead the nation, they answered:
Binyamin Netanyahu – 38%
Former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz – 12%
Yair Lapid – 9%
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman – 5%
Avi Gabbay – 4%
None of them – 18%.
13% responded that they do not know or refused to answer.
The survey was conducted by Dr. Mina Tzemaḥ and Mano Geva, in collaboration with the iPanel Institute, among 517 respondents in a representative sample of the total population in Israel.
The margin of error error in the survey was 4.4%.
Although the Knesset returns from its summer recess on October 15, elections are not expected to be initiated until a month later, after municipal races.
