Benjamin Netanyahu and Isaac Herzog
Photos: EPA, Gil Yohanan
Poll: Likud, Zionist Camp in dead heat
New poll puts center-left camp one seat ahead of Likud, as Bennett and Lapid tie for third biggest party spot, with elections almost month away.
A new poll has Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud in a dead heat with its main rival for the leadership of Israel, with the Zionist Union actually leading on the Likud by a single seat.
The poll, by Israel's Channel 2 News, has the center-left Zionist Union at 25 Knesset seats and Likud trailing by one with 24. The poll has a 3.6 percent margin of error.
Photo: AFP, Gil Nechushtan, Alex Kulmoynoski)
Israel's election system has different parties contend for spots in the 120-seat Knesset. Many times, the party with the most seats forms a governing coalition by forging alliances with the smaller parties. The next prime minister is the head of the party who manages to bring the different parties together.
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The joint Arab List – a unified ticket of three different Israeli-Arab parties, including one which also touts a Jewish representative –took the third spot with 12; though it is unlikely it would join a governing coalition, even a left-wing one. In the past Arab parties have agreed to unofficially express support for a left-wing government, granting them the de facto majority they need to rule.
Tied for fourth with 11 Knesset seats were the right-wing Bayit Yehudi party and the centrist Yesh Atid, led respectively by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid.
They were followed by the newly formed Kulanu party, which polled at 7 seats. The party, headed by former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon, is running on a socio-economic platform, and is considered a swing vote in the election, Kahlon could throw his support behind either the Likud or the Zionist Union.
Registering a small bump in polls was Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beytenu party – which hold significant power in the current government but have plummeted in recent polls – now polling at 7.
The ultra-Orthodox Sephardic party Shas was polling at 6. The relatively low number is a result of the formation of splinter party, Yahad - Am Ehad, led by Eli Yishai and running on a more militant platform, and which is currently polling at 5, resulting in a loss in votes for Shas.
The left-wing Meretz party was standing solid at 5 – which puts them at risk for not crossing the threshold.
The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism was polling at 7, the result it is expected to attain as it enjoys a stable voter base which always votes inside the political camp.
