Poll Shows Likud Clawing Back Votes

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party may have turned a corner in the new election cycle, regaining support after the initial shock of new parties in the race.

If elections were held now, Likud would receive 31 seats in the Knesset, based on a Channel 13 poll Friday, as compared to ‏‏27 in a Channel 12 survey on January 5.

New Hope, led by Gideon Saar, slipped to 16 after polling over 20 just a week ago, and Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai’s The Israelis party shrunk to a mere 5 after polls said he’d get 8 right after he announced his candidacy, according to Channel 13.

The Arab Joint List has slumped to 10 seats from its 15 in the outgoing Knesset. Shas and United Torah Judaism were each forecast to pick up 7 seats. Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu has declined to 6 seats, Meretz 5, and Blue and White would scrape by with 4.

Labor, Jewish Home, Gesher and Tnufa would all fail to pass the 3.4 percent electoral threshold.

The average result of the five most recent polls is as follows (the previous five-poll average is in parentheses):

Likud – 29 Knesset seats (28)
New Hope – 17 (17)
Yesh Atid-Telem – 14 (13)
Yamina – 13 (13)
Joint Arab List – 10 (11)
Shas – 8 (8)
United Torah Judaism – 7 (8)
The Israelis – 7 (8)
Yisrael Beitenu – 6 (6)
Meretz – 5 (6)
Blue & White – 4 (4)