Likud Still on Top, According to Latest Poll

Seventy-five days before the elections, the Likud is still the people’s favorite. A new poll released by Reshet Bet on Thursday shows that if the elections were held today, the Likud led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would get 31 seats in the Knessset. The second largest party would be the Israel Resilience Party led by Benny Gantz, while Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid would get 11 seats. The Labor Party continues to lose support, and the poll shows it would get only nine seats.

The numbers are consistent with polls publicized over the past two weeks, after new parties headed by Gantz, Naftali Bennett, and Moshe Yaalon announced they were running in the elections. Those numbers are expected to change next week, however, when Gantz finally releases a platform and publicly discusses his positions on major issues. So far, Gantz has been tight-lipped on nearly all issues, and a report on Channel 20 said that party activists had been “sworn to secrecy” about the party’s stance on issues.

The poll shows Bennett’s New Right garnering 8 seats, while Jewish Home, the party he abandoned and now led by MK Betzalel Smotrich, gets 4 seats. United Torah Judaism and Meretz would get 6 each, as would the United Arab List. The rest of the Arab vote would go to the Ta’al list, headed by Ahmad Tibi. Shas and Yisrael Beytenu would get 5 each, while Kulanu and Gesher would get 4. Hatenuah, headed by Tzipi Livni, does not pass the electoral threshold. If all parties that were in the current coalition, along with New Right, join a Likud-led government, Netanyahu could count on 63 seats in the Knesset.