Following the Knesset’s approval in a first reading of restricting the reasonability clause, which generated mad hatter anarchist protesters in 50 intersections and on all the country’s major highways, Thursday’s Direct Polls survey that was featured on Cannel 14 shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud party continuing their positive momentum, with Netanyahu ahead of his two rivals on suitability for the post of Prime Minister.
The Knesset mandates should elections be held on Thursday are as follows:
Likud (Netanyahu) – 30
National Camp (Gantz) – 28
Yesh Atid (Lapid) – 14
Shas (Deri) – 9
United Torah Judaism (Goldknopf) – 7
Israel Beiteinu (Liberman) – 7
Otzma Yehudit (Ben Gvir) – 6
Religious Zionism (Smotrich) – 5
Ra’am (Abbas) – 5
Hadash Ta’al (Odeh) – 5
Meretz (Unknown) – 4
Balad (Abu Shehadeh) – 2.7 (below the 3.25% vote threshold)
Labor (Michaeli) – 2.5 (below the 3.25% vote threshold)
In terms of blocs:
Right: 57
Left: 53
Arabs: 10
In other words, it’s the familiar deadlock from before the November 1, 2022 election, which could produce a left-wing government supported by the two Arab parties. Netanyahu and the two non-Haredi right-wing parties will have to mine for their lost seven votes in Gantz’s camp.
Gantz is riding high these days, with the gap between his real Knesset mandates (12) and what the polls are predicting at a dizzying 28, a 16-seat difference. The right has to hope that Gantz’s partners, Gideon Sa’ar and Ze’ev Elkin, will chip at this advantage when they announce their own, independent party.
Meanwhile, the Direct Polls survey is pointing at a continued positive momentum for Netanyahu on the question of who is best fit for the job of prime minister.
Asked to choose between Netanyahu and Gantz, 48% of respondents picked Netanyahu, compared with 40% for Gantz, 12% liked neither.
Netanyahu vs. Lapid: Netanyahu gets 49%, Lapid 35%, and 16% say neither.
The sample was compiled by Shlomo Filber and Zuriel Sharon through Direct Polls Ltd. for News Now 14, on July 13, 2023, using a digital system combined with a panel, among 809 sampled adults (+18) who are a representative sample of the entire population in Israel. The sampling error was +3.7% with a probability of 95%.
