Poll: Netanyahu’s Hold on Power Weakening

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party has slipped from 30 to 24 seats and would barely maintain its coalition majority if elections were held today, according to the latest opinion poll.

The iPanel poll conducted for Hadashot news shows Yesh Atid doubling its size to 22 over its current 11.

But PM Netanyahu could still assemble a 61-59 majority, assuming that its current coalition partners stay with him. Jewish Home (12 up from 8); United Torah Judaism, Yisrael Beytenu with 7 each (both up from 6); Kulanu at 6 (down from 10) and Shas at 5 (down from 7). For Shas it was good news, as recent polls have shown it slipping down to the electoral threshold, in danger of not making it to the next Knesset at all.

A previous poll indicated that the center-left bloc could outnumber Likud and its allies, so this was an improvement. However, for Likud itself it was bad news, since the last poll taken gave it 26 seats, whereas this time it had only 24.

As for the opposition parties: Besides Yesh Atid, already mentioned, Zionist Camp would jump from 18 to 24; Joint (Arab) List would win 12 seats, down from 13; Meretz would gain two seats, from 5 to 7.