Coalition Gains in Latest Poll

A poll published on Monday night showed that if elections were held now, the current government coalition would have a clear majority in the Knesset, putting it in a better position than at present.

A poll, conducted by Professor Camille Fuchs for Channel 13, found that both Likud and Yesh Atid, the No. 1 and No. 2 parties, have strengthened significantly. It had Yesh Atid, the largest coalition party, rising from 17 to 22 seats, and Likud getting 34 – seven more seats than in the previous poll and four more than they actually won in the last election.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party held steady at seven seats, though Bennett himself lost support, as some 59% of respondents expressed dissatisfied with Bennett’s performance in office.

Asked whether they are satisfied with his leadership, 3% of the respondents said they are very satisfied, 31% somewhat satisfied, 24% somewhat dissatisfied and 35% described themselves as very dissatisfied.

On the other hand, Shas fell by three seats to only 6, Yisrael Beyteinu and Meretz each fall by two seats – Yisrael Beyteinu for five and Meretz for only four.

It was not clear what accounted for the changes.

United Torah Judaism kept its 7 seats, and Ra’am was again at four seats, while the Religious Zionism party and the Joint Arab List each picked up one seat.

Overall, if the elections had been held today, the coalition parties would have received 59 seats, compared with 54 seats for the opposition parties which support Binyamin Netanyahu and 7 seats for the Joint Arab List.