Photo Credit: Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90
On December 13, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will celebrate half a year on the job, but a Thursday public opinion poll suggests he has not been able to turn his achievements so far (combating Corona without lockdowns and passing a budget after three years without one) into a gain in popularity with the voters.
The poll, conducted by the Rafi Smith Institute for Galay Israel radio, found that Bennett and his Yamina party continue to slide downward.
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Although the survey publisher did not mention how many people were contacted and by what methods, it shows a trend that we’ve been observing since the establishment of the Lapid-Bennett coalition government. And so, keeping this in mind, here are the numbers:
- Likud – 34 (currently 30)
- Yesh Atid – 21 (17)
- Shas – 9 (9)
- Blue&White – 7 (8)
- Labor – 7 (7)
- Joint Arab List – 7 (6)
- Israel Beiteinu – 7 (7)
- United Torah Judaism – 7 (7)
- Religious Zionism – 7 (6)
- Ra’am – 5 (4)
- Yamina – 5 (7)
- Meretz – 4 (6)
- New hope – does not pass the 3.25% vote threshold (6)
Winners and losers:
- Likud and Yesh Atid are the biggest winners, gaining 4 seats each. It shows that Yair Lapid’s gamble paid off; it also shows that Netanyahu is resilient enough to sustain his election loss.
- Ra’am is another winner, taking a seat from its enemy, the Joint Arab List.
- Yamina and Meretz lose 2 seats each; New Hope is fighting for its life.
Left vs. Right:
- The right-wing bloc (without Yamina) has 57 seats. With Yamina – the needed 62 seats for a coalition government. Without Yamina but with Blue&White – 64 seats. In either case, the presumed winner Benjamin Netanyahu would have to mend fences with either Bennett or Benny Gantz and pay the necessary political price.
- The left-wing bloc (without Yamina) has only 51 seats. With Yamina 56.
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