If elections were held in Israel today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud would remain the largest party in the Knesset with 30 seats, a new poll released Sunday by broadcaster Channel 12 found.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid would come in second with 17 seats, although the number would be significantly lower than the Likud.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: GPO)
The census showed a decline for two former right-wing parties making a strong display.
New Hope, former Likud minister Gideon Saar, would win 14 chairs while former education and defense minister Namtali Bennett would win 13 seats in the next Knesset.
The Joint List alliance of largely Arab parties, which currently has 15 Knesset seats, would shrink to 10 seats while continuing the downward trend in recent studies .
Hopeful new boss Gideon Saar and Benny Begin
(Photo: New hope)
Ultra-Orthodox English parties and United Torah Judaism were expected to win eight Knesset sets.
Yisrael Beiteinu, led by Avigdor Liberman, won seven seats, the census showed, followed by the Labor Party with five, Meretz on the left with four and the Defense Minister’s middle-class Blue & White party. Benny Gantz drops to four from the current 14.
Newly developed Tel Aviv party Ron Huldai The Israeli party would not pass the threshold of the election, along with former IDF President Moshe Ya’alon’s Telem party and Knesset Ball Gnessher party Orly Levy
Political facts have until February 4 to register their slate for the Knesset to the Central Electoral Committee, ahead of the March 23 elections that will be Israel’s fourth in two years.