Poll Says Netanyahu’s Majority Is Gone; Pollster Attributes It to Investigation

If elections were held today, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would lose his current governing majority, according to a new poll, Globes reported on Monday.

The findings, published by Geocartography, projected that opposition parties would gain 60 seats in the 120-member Knesset, thus enabling them to block Netanyahu from forming a new government.

The combined mandates of Yesh Atid, Zionist Camp, Meretz and the Joint Arab List would equal that of Likud and its coalition partners, Jewish Home, Yisrael Beytenu, Shas and United Torah Judaism.

Netanyahu’s Likud party, the largest in the Knesset right now, would drop from 30 seats to 22, as Yesh Atid would overtake it with 27, more than doubling its current strength of 11 MK’s.

Geocartography president and CEO Pof. Avi Degani had little doubt about the cause of Likud’s decline:

“The low result for Likud almost certainly stems from the police investigations of Netanyahu and widespread attacks on him and his family, and so only 47 percent of those who say they would vote Likud express certainty about it, although the equivalent figure for Yesh Atid is 33.5 percent.”

However, an indication encouraging for the chareidi community was a projected upswing for United Torah Judaism, from 6 to 10 mandates, while Shas held steady at 6.

According to the poll, the number of seats that each party would win if elections were held today is as follows (2015 result in parentheses):

Likud (headed by Binyamin Netanyahu): 22 (30)
Zionist Camp (Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni): 13 (24)
Jewish Home (Naftali Bennett): 9 (8)
Yesh Atid (Yair Lapid): 27 (11)
Yisrael Beytenu (Avigdor Liberman): 7 (6)
Kulanu (Moshe Kahlon): 6 (10)
United Torah Judaism: 10 (6)
Meretz (Zehava Gal-On): 7 (5)
Shas (Rabbi Aryeh Deri): 6 (6)
Joint Arab List (Ayman Odeh): 13 (13)