Posted on 11/02/21
| News Source: Times of Israel
A television survey on Monday predicted the predominantly Arab Joint List would hold the balance of power on forming a coalition if elections were held today, with neither the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox opposition bloc led by Benjamin Netanyahu nor the current governing alliance able to establish a government without its backing.
According to the Channel 13 poll, Netanyahu’s Likud would win 36 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, far ahead of the second-largest party, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, which would pick up 20 seats. Merav Michaeli’s Labor would become the third-largest party, with 10 seats, followed by the Joint List with eight.
According to the projection, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White and the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism would each score seven seats; Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina and its former ally-turned-rival Religious Zionism, led by Bezalel Smotrich, would each win six; Nitzan Horowitz’s Meretz would hold five seats, and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu and Mansour Abbas’s Islamist Ra’am party would have four each.
The survey predicted that Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope would fail to clear the electoral threshold, after picking up just 2.6 percent of the vote. The right-wing coalition party composed mostly of former Likud members currently has six seats.
The survey result indicates the parties in the current diverse coalition led by Bennett and Lapid would have 56 seats — tied with the Netanyahu-led bloc, with both five seats short of forming a government. The Joint List would therefore be the kingmaker in such a scenario.