Israel Election Polls: Support for Netanyahu’s Likud Drops, Right-wing Slate on the Rise

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party would lose four to five of its current 36 Knesset seats should Israel go again to election, two polls published on Thursday predict, while right-wing party Yamina is projected to more than double its electoral power.

According to a Channel 13 News poll, Likud would get 31 out of 120 Knesset seats, and according to a Channel 12 News poll, it would get 32. 

The Netanyahu-led right-wing bloc would have 60 seats, according to Channel 13, while the center-left bloc would get 52, possibly making Yisrael Beiteinu’s Avigdor Lieberman kingmaker after a potential election. However, the Channel 12 News poll predicts Netanyahu’s bloc would have 63 seats, giving it a clear majority even without Yisrael Beiteinu.

The second-biggest party, according to both polls, would be Yesh Atid-Telem, which ran together with Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan in Israel’s March 2 election. It then split when Gantz decided to join a unity government with Netanyahu. The polls predict it would get 18-19 Knesset seats.

Right-wing slate Yamina, led by former ministers Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, would get 15-16 seats, according to the polls, while the Joint List, a four-way alliance of Arab-majority parties, would get 15 seats.

Kahol Lavan, according to the polls, would get between nine and 11 seats. Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu is predicted to win seven-eight seats. 

Left-wing party Meretz, which currently has only three representatives in parliament, would get seven-eight seats, according to the polls.