If the elections were held on Wednesday, one day after the signing ceremony for the normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, the Likud party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, would have lost one seat compared to the previous poll conducted last week by the same outfit for News 13.
The Likud, which still maintains its position as the largest party in the Knesset, would have received 30 seats, one seat less than a week ago, and 6 fewer than its current Knesset faction.
Those mandates have been siphoned by Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party which continues to grow and currently stands at 22 seats in this poll (compared to its current faction which comprises just 6 MKs).
Next in line is Yesh Atid, led by Yair Lapid, which holds on to its 18 seats from last week (its current faction in the Knesset is 17-mandate strong).
The Joint Arab List loses one seat and drops to 12 (from its current 15). Blue&White loses 3 seats and drops to a scant 8 (compared to its current 14 Knesset seats). Meretz and Israel Beiteinu receive 8 seats each, which for the former is a great boost from its current 3 seats, and for the latter a more modest rise of 1 from its current 7 seats.
Shas and United Torah Judaism close the list with seven seats each.
The survey also showed that only 68% of Israelis intend to comply fully with the lockdown provisions. 6% of respondents said they would obey all the instructions – except the prohibition on parties, 17% announced they would comply with only some of the rules, while 4% of the respondents stated they did not intend to comply with the rules at all come Friday, the eve of Rosh Hashanah.
The respondents were also asked whether, in their opinion, after the coming lockdown, the State of Israel would return to routine life or whether it would be forced to go to a third lockdown. 46% of respondents answered that the closure will help temporarily but will surely be followed by another one. In contrast, 41% think that the closure will not change anything, while the rest – 13%, chose the optimistic answer, according to which the lockdown will help, and afterward Israel will return fully to its routine.
The next question was whether Prime Minister Netanyahu should have flown to the signing ceremony of the peace agreement held in Washington, DC, or stayed home to manage the corona crisis. 49% responded that Netanyahu did indeed have to fly. 33% said he didn’t, and 18% had no opinion on the matter.
Also, 58% of respondents said they were dissatisfied with Netanyahu’s performance in managing the corona crisis. 21% is quite satisfied with his performance, 12% are satisfied and 9% don’t know.
And yet, despite the overwhelming dissatisfaction with his job performance, 31% of those surveyed believe that Netanyahu is best qualified to serve as prime minister. He is followed by Bennett with 18%, Yair Lapid with 13%, and Benny Gantz with only 10%.
The survey, conducted by Professor Camil Fuchs, included 703 respondents, of whom 602 were from the Jewish sector and 101 from the non-Jewish sector. The sampling error is +- 3.9%.