Election Poll: Anti-Netanyahu Bloc Holds Majority, Labor Enters the Fray

A Channel 13 opinion poll released Sunday evening shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party pushing forward with 32 projected Knesset seats, two more than they were awarded in the previous poll earlier this week.

Yesh Atid is projected to take the second most seats, with 18. Behind them is Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party, which is projected to win 14.

The poll also shows the Labor Party passing the electoral threshold for the first time since the March 23 election was announced, hours after party veteran Merav Michaeli secured the chairmanship in the Labor primary.

The new religious-Zionist party established by Bezalel Smotrich, Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem party, the New Economic Party, Ofer Shelah’s Momentum party and Habayit Hayehudi were not projected to pass the electoral threshold.

If the election were held today, the poll projects. Netanyahu’s party would not be able to form a governing coalition. The bloc of parties that has not vowed against entering a government with Netanyahu – Likud, the far-right Yamina, and the ultra-Orthodox parties – would win only 55 seats. The parties that have objected to Netanyahu’s continued leadership – New Hope, Yesh Atid, the Joint List, Yisrael Beiteinu, Ron Huldai’s The Israelis, Meretz and Kahol Lavan – would garner a combined 65 seats.

The pollsters also asked how respondents would vote if certain parties linked up or if certain figures joined particular parties. If former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni were to join Yesh Atid, and The Israelis, Labor, Ofer Shelah’s Momentum party and the New Economic Party merged together, Likud would gain 31 seats; Yesh Atid with Livni would earn 22; New Hope would win 14; The Israelis, Momentum and the New Economic Party would garner nine; Yisrael Beiteinu would take five; Meretz and Kahol Lavan would win four each.

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The poll was conducted by Camille Fuchs, and surveyed 694 respondents. Of those, 602 are Jewish and 92 are from other communities. There is a margin of error of 3.7 percent.