Netanyahu at the opening of his trial May 24th 2020
Netanyahu at the opening of his trial May 24th 2020Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his Likud party would win a decisive victory if new elections were held today, a new poll released Wednesday morning shows.

The poll, which was conducted online by Panels Politics Tuesday among 527 respondents, was broadcast on Radio 103FM Wednesday morning.

According to the survey, if new elections were held today, the Likud would trounce its rival Blue and White party, along with the Yesh Atid party, winning a total of 41 seats, a gain of five seats compared to the 36 the Likud won in the March 2020 election.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party, by comparison, would fall from 15 seats to just 12 seats if new elections were held today, making it the fourth largest party.

Yesh Atid, running in conjunction with the Telem faction, would win 14 seats if new elections were held today, down from its current 16.

Blue and White, Yesh Atid, and Telem ran on a joint list in the March 2020 election, winning a combined 33 seats.

After Gantz inked a deal with Netanyahu to form a unity government, however, the alliance split up into three separate parties: Blue and White with 15 seats, Yesh Atid-Telem with 16 (13 for Yesh Atid, three for Telem) and Derech Eretz (which split from Telem) with two.

The Joint Arab List, which won 15 seats in March, would maintain its strength in new elections, the poll found.

Shas would retain its nine seats, according to the poll, while the United Torah Judaism party would grow from seven seats to eight.

The secular-rightist Yisrael Beytenu party, which broke from the rightist bloc last year, is projected to win just six seats, down from its current seven, making it the smallest faction if new elections were held today.

Yamina, an alliance of small rightist parties, would rise from six seats to nine, while the right-wing Otzma Yehudit faction would fail to cross the 3.25% electoral threshold, receiving just 1.3% of the vote.

Labor, which won three seats as part of a joint list with Gesher and the far-left Meretz faction, would fail to cross the electoral threshold if new elections were held today, receiving just 1.5% of the vote.

Meretz, which currently has three seats, is projected to rise to six seats.

Gesher, led by former Yisrael Beytenu MK Orly Levy, received 0.9% of the vote in the poll, far below the electoral threshold.

Broken down by bloc, the right-wing – religious camp would win an outright majority according to the poll, with 67 seats in the 120-member Knesset, a gain of nine seats over the 58 seats the rightist bloc currently has.

The center-left-Arab bloc, however, would fall from 55 seats to 47.

The poll also found that Israelis are divided over the ongoing trial of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Forty-two percent of respondents agreed with Netanyahu’s claim that he had been wrongfully indicted on graft charges, while 47% of respondents disagreed.