Polls Show PM’s Immunity Request Has Little Impact on Numbers

The first set of polls taken since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that he would seek parliamentary immunity show that the move had little impact on the balance of power between right and left. Polls by Channels 12 and 13 and Kan News show Blue and White with a slight electoral edge over the Likud, but failing to amass a Knesset majority with the assistance of both the United Arab List and Yisrael Beytenu, or convincing several of the right-wing or chareidi parties to join a government led by Benny Gantz.

Elections are set for 60 days from now, but if they were held today, Channel 13 has Blue and White coming in with 36 Knesset seats, and the Likud with 34. The United Arab List would get 13 seats, while the New Right would get 8. Both Shas and United Torah Judaism would get 7 each. Labor would get 5 and Democratic Camp 4. The Jewish Home list does not pass the electoral threshold, but just barely.

Losing steam in Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu, which gets 6 seats. The right-wing/chareidi camp would get 56 seats in this scenario, and the left 45, without the UAL and Yisrael Beytenu. The poll also shows that Israelis still prefer Binyamin Netanyahu as prime minister over Benny Gantz, with 41% choosing Netanyahu and 33% preferring Gantz.

The Channel 12 poll shows similar results for nearly all parties, with Blue and White getting 35 and Likud 33. In this poll, the chareidi parties get 16 seats, and Jewish Home again barely misses the threshold. The right-wing bloc gets 55 seats in this poll, with 44 for Blue and White/Labor/Democratic Camp. Here, too, Netanyahu beats Gantz for the Prime Minister’s Office, by 40% to 39%. The Kan News poll has Blue and White at 35 and Likud at 33, with the Blue and White bloc coming in at 46 seats, compared to 54 for the right.