Had a new Israeli general election been held on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have struggled to hammer out a governing majority, according to polls published by several Israeli TV channels.
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Channel 13 News projected Netanyahu's right-wing and ultra-Orthodox bloc would have crashed to a mere 46 seats, 18 fewer than its current 64, while the opposition would win a majority of 62 seats, rather than its current 51
The backbone of Israel's opposition bloc consists of two centrist parties, Benny Gantz’s National Unity and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. Last year, they formed an unlikely and short-lived governing coalition with Yamina Party leader Naftali Bennett, identified with the religious Zionist right, and a host of smaller parties, including the dovish Labor and Meretz, as well as Ra'am, the first Arab party to become part of an Israeli government. The union of motley ideologies was dictated by a shared anti-Netanyahu sentiment.
All the polls indicate that it is Gantz who gained the most from the mass protests against the judicial overhaul proposed by the Netanyahu-led right-wing government.
According to Kan 11 News poll, the Netanyahu bloc would be reduced to 51 parliamentary seats and the Likud, with 28 seats, would be usurped by Gantz’s National Unity, with 30, as the biggest party.
The poll by Channel 14 News, a popular right-wing outlet, projected that Likud would remain the single biggest party, with 30 seats; yet the Netanyahu bloc garners 58 seats in this scenario, an insufficient total to form a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
Reprinted with permission from i24NEWS