Anti-Netanyahu Bloc Has Majority Even as Likud Gains Strength, Election Poll Shows

The broad coalition of political parties that oppose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would win a majority of seats in the upcoming election, according to a poll published Tuesday evening by Channel 12 News, even as the premier's party has gained strength over the past week.

The poll indicated that the bloc of parties that have sworn not to form a government with Netanyahu – comprised of Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope, Yesh Atid, the Joint List, Yisrael Beitenu, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai's The Israelis, Meretz and Kahol Lavan – would win 62 seats in the upcoming election.

According to the poll, the Likud is still the largest party with 29 seats, two more than last week's poll by Channel 12 News. By contrast, Gideon Saar's party New Hope has lost two seats since the last poll, dropping to 16. Yamina, led by Naftali Bennett and now without Bezalel Smotrich, stands at 13 seats.

The New Economic Party, led by Prof. Yaron Zelekha, would not pass the electoral threshold (4%), receiving 2.7% support, according to the poll. Other parties projected by the poll not to pass the electoral threshold include: Religious Zionism led by Bezalel Smotrich (2.5%), Labor (1.1%), Habayit Hayehudi (0.7%), Telem (0.7%), Otzma Yehudit (0.7%), Tnufa (0.3%), Gesher (0.1%).

The poll also showed that an alliance between Yamina and New Hope would garner them 25 seats, 30 seats to Likud and 15 to Yesh Atid, and a unification of all center-left parties would yield 28 seats, 30 to Likud and 13 to New Hope.

The poll was conducted by the Midgam polling firm headed by Mano Geva, over the internet and by phone, among a representative sample of the entire population and included 575 participants. The margin of error for the poll is +/-4.4%.