Polls Show Deadlock in September

Two polls released on Wednesday indicate that the repeat elections in September will likely deliver the same results as in last April.

According to the data, both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party would again fall short of a majority to form a coalition. And again, Avigdor Liberman would wield the votes needed to break the deadlock.

A survey taken by Midgam for Channel 12 showed that if elections were held now, the results would be: Likud 32 (down from 35); Blue and White 31 (down from 35); Joint Arab List 12 (10); Yisrael Beytenu 9 (5); Labor 8 (6); Shas 7 (8); United Torah Judaism 7 (8); Union of Right-Wing Parties 5 (5); New Right 5 (0) and Meretz 4 (4).

Ehud Barak’s new party, which scored 6 seats a week ago, did not make it to the Knesset in this poll, either an indication of how unreliable the polls are, or how unstable public opinion is.

Moshe Feiglin’s Zehut party was again below the electoral threshold.

Those figures yield a 56-MK bloc for the right/chareidi parties versus 51 for the center-left-Arabs, with Liberman holding the balance of power.

A Channel 13 survey was very close to that. It gave Likud 31; Blue and White 29; Joint Arab List 9; Yisrael Beytenu 8; Labor 7; Shas 7; Ehud Barak’s party 6; United Torah Judaism 6; New Right 5; Union of Right-Wing Parties 4, Meretz 4 and Zehut 4.