Neither coalition nor opposition would be able to form majority government, according to a new poll
According to a fresh Israeli poll commissioned by Israel's Ma’ariv online news, neither Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition nor the political opposition would be able to form a new majority government were elections to be held today, conducted by Panels Politics.
The Israeli political system requires a minimum of 61 seats in its 120-seat parliament in order to form a majority government.
Netanyahu’s Likud party and the National Unity party would each earn 27 seats in the Knesset, according to the new poll, which was conducted by Panels Politics.
Results reportedly showed that opposition leader Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party would receive 18 seats. The Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party, Shas, would earn nine seats while the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism, would receive seven seats.
The Religious Zionism party, which sits in the Netanyahu coalition, would receive six seats, which is the same number of seats as the Arab party Hadash-Ta’al’s and Avigdor Liberman’s secular right-wing opposition party, Yisrael Beytenu, according to the poll results.
The poll results also revealed far-right Jewish Power party, another Likud partner, would receive five seats, along with left-wing party Meretz, which was eliminated in the previous election.
The Arab Islamist Ra’am party would earn just four of the 120 seats.
Just two months ago, polls suggested that the National Unity party, led by former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, would surpass Likud as the largest party in the Knesset. At the time, it was also revealed that a larger number of Israelis polled favored Gantz over Netanyahu as the most suitable candidate for prime minister.
Netanyahu’s Likud numbers, however, appear to have bounced back after the recent Operation Shield and Arrow anti-terror campaign against the Gaza-based terror group Islamic Jihad.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
