Poll: Yamina closing in on Likud, public supports limiting protests, prayers
The right-wing Yamina party is closing the gap with the ruling Likud, which has seen its support drop sharply in recent weeks, according to a poll published Wednesday.
The survey published by Channel 12 news indicated that if elections were held now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud would win 29 seats, seven fewer than it currently holds.
The poll showed the Yamina party up to 21 seats, continuing a trend seen in recent months as faction head Naftali Bennett has pounded the prime minister for the government’s mishandling of the coronavirus crisis, while presenting himself as a viable right-wing alternative. The party currently holds only five seats in the Knesset.
No elections are set to take place, but speculation is rampant that an early vote will be called sometime in the next several months, as bad blood between Netanyahu and his Blue and White partner Defense Minister Benny Gantz continues to brew, in the shadow of a budget deadline at the end of the year that could automatically fell the government.
Centrist Yesh Atid, led by opposition chair Yair Lapid, appeared to be holding the line with 17 Knesset seats, maintaining the 17 it currently holds.
According to the poll, Gantz’s Blue and White party is projected to win nine seats, a five-seat drop from the 14 it currently holds.
The other parties projected to win seats were the Arab-majority Joint List (15), the ultra-Orthodox Shas (9), United Torah Judaism (7), the secular, right-wing Yisrael Beytenu (8) and left-wing Meretz (5).
Labor, Gesher, Derech Eretz, and the Jewish Home party were not projected to pass the electoral threshold for entering Knesset.
The poll also found that 70% of the public supports restricting the weekly protests against Netanyahu as a means to help reign-in the out-of-control coronavirus pandemic in Israel. Only 22% were against, while 8% had no opinion.
The public also supports shutting synagogues over the Yom Kippur holiday, with 60% favoring the move. 32% were against and 8% had no opinion.
The poll was released as ministers debated imposing a complete closure on Israel to try stop spiraling virus numbers.
The poll also trialed the idea of a party led by Knesset Coronavirus Committee chair Yifat Shasha-Biton, finding that she would garner eight seats at the expense of three seats from the Likud base, two from Blue and White, two from Yamina, and one from Yesh Atid.
Shasha-Biton, a Likud party member and vocal a critic of the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, has risen in popularity after a number of public clashes with Likud officials.
She has given no indication that she is considering leaving Likud or setting up her own party. Previous polls have also been overly generous to newcomers, who have failed to garner actual seats in elections.
The poll was conducted online and over the phone from among 512 responders who formed a representative sample of the entire Israeli population, and with a margin of error of 4.4 percent.