Israeli voters have less confidence in major parties - poll
Lapid’s bloc won 56 seats, while Netanyahu and his allies got 58 seats, according to the survey
New poll conducted by Panel Politics showed on Thursday that Israel’s largest parties are losing voters to smaller fractions ahead of the November elections.
The right-wing Likud party led by Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu got 31 seats against 32 last week, while centrist Yesh Atid headed by Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid won 23 seats dropping down from 25.
Meanwhile left-wing Meretz gained a seat securing five in total following its primaries this week, where Zehava Galon regained party leadership after returning from retirement. Otzma Yehudit and Labor also gained a seat each, with eight and seven respectively.
Overall, Lapid’s bloc won 56 seats, while Netanyahu and his allies got 58 seats, according to the survey. Neither of them are predicted to get the majority of seats in the 120-seat Israeli parliament, the Knesset, to form a government.
Earlier this week, Netanyahu called for a unity deal between right-wing Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionist parties, with the poll showing the latest would not pass the electoral threshold on its own. The two parties ran a shared ticket in Israel’s 2021 elections, but announced running separately in the upcoming vote on November 1.
Earlier on Thursday, Lapid said he didn’t rule out cooperation with the Arab-majority Joint List, but noted the party would not be in the government. The prime minister also called for an alliance between the left-wing Meretz and center-left Labor party, warning that the parties running separately could lead to a government headed by Netanyahu and Otzma Yehudit’s leader Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Over 18 percent of Israeli voters are still undecided, according to the poll, which included 715 respondents.