Likud Runaway Winner in Latest Polls

The Likud party seems set for a runaway victory while likely casualties of the current wrenching reconfiguration of Israeli politics are Yesh Atid, Jewish Home, Labor, and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah party, according to polls released on Wednesday night.

After many months of polling as the country’s No. 2 party, with mandates in the lower 20s and upper teens, Yesh Atid would get a mere 10 Knesset seats, if elections were held now, according to a poll conducted by Midgam in cooperation with iPanel of Dr. Mina Tzemach and Mano Geva, sponsored by Hadashot.

Likud would pull even farther into the lead with 31 seats, while Benny Gantz’s “Hosen LaYisrael” would win 12 seats, much of it presumably at the expense of Yesh Atid.

Another newcomer that would also take from existing parties, Orly Levy Abecassis’s Gesher, showed with 5 seats.

Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua would get 5 seats and the Jewish Home 4, just clearing the electoral threshold. However, a separate poll reported by the Kan public broadcaster predicted that both parties would fail to make the threshold and be wiped from the Knesset.

Both polls said that Labor under Avi Gabbay would receive 8 seats, a dismal third of its 24 in the outgoing Knesset.

United Torah Judaism was projected with 7 seats, Joint List 12, New Right 6, Kulanu 5, Shas and Meretz both 5.