Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin NetanyahuMarc Israel Sellem/Flash 90

The ruling Likud party continues to decline in Knesset polls, with former Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party opening up a four-mandate lead over the Likud.

According to a poll conducted by the Panels agency and published by Walla! on Wednesday, the recent coalition crisis pitting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against his present Finance Minister, Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu), has reduced support for the Prime Minister.

The crisis centers on plans to shut down the government-controlled Israel Broadcasting Authority and replace it with the Israel Public Broadcasting Corporation. While Netanyahu initially backed the change, he has since reversed his position, now claiming that the IBA has remedied many of the problems which had been the impetus for the original drive to replace the broadcasting authority.

In addition, he cited the enormous sums that would have to be found for severance payments, the large number of staff, and the failure to create a balanced newsroom as opposed to the left-leaning IBA crew.

But Kahlon has refused to back down from his pledge to dismantle the IBA, leading to a weeks-long standoff between the two leaders.

Among the 520 respondents polled by Panels, just 27% said they sided with Netanyahu in the coalition dispute, compared to 41% who say they support Kahlon. Thirty-two percent of respondents said they did not know whom they favor more. It has been claimed that the public is not familiar with the details of the dispute.

Throughout the crisis, the Prime Minister, who feels strongly about media bias, has insisted he is prepared to go to early elections if no agreement with Kahlon can be reached. But few voters took Netanyahu’s words at face value, with just 16% saying he is genuinely interested in early elections, compared to 67% who say he does not want elections now, and 17% who say they do not know.

If elections were held today, Yesh Atid would defeat the Likud by four seats, 28 to 24, a one-seat increase over the previous Panel poll, released last Friday, which showed Likud winning 25 seats.

The Jewish Home party would rise from the 8 seats it won in 2015 to 13, becoming the third largest party in the Knesset.

The predominantly Arab Joint List, currently the third largest party with 13 seats, would slip to fourth place with 12 mandates, a decline of one seat from last week’s poll.

The Zionist Union party, presently the second largest party in the Knesset with 24 seats, falls to just 10 mandates in the poll, consistent with the findings of last week’s survey.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu would gain one seat, rising from six to seven mandates, a gain of one seat over the previous poll.

Finance Minister Kahlon’s Kulanu party is projected to win 7 seats according to the poll, the same as in the last poll but a drop from the 10 seats the party won in 2015.

The poll also shows a one-seat decline for the Shas party, which would win just six seats, while United Torah Judaism would gain one mandate, rising to seven.

The far-left Meretz party would also gain one seat, winning six seats.