The race for the 22nd Knesset remains tight, a new poll shows, with the right-wing and left-wing blocs essentially tied.
According to the new poll, which was conducted by Midgam and published by Channel 12 Thursday evening, if new elections were held today, the Likud would narrowly edge out the center-left Blue and White party by a margin of one seat, 31 to 30. The results represent a one-seat gain for the Likud, while the Blue and White party remain unchanged.
The right-wing – religious bloc would also narrowly defeat the left-wing – Arab bloc with 56 seats to 54 seats, not including 10 seats for the Yisrael Beytenu party, which has vowed to block the formation of a narrow rightist government.
The Yamina party, a joint list of the National Union, Jewish Home, and New Right factions, would win 10 seats if new elections were held today, one down from the previous Midgam poll released last Friday.
Shas and United Torah Judaism received seven and eight seats respectively, the same number they were projected to win in the previous Midgam poll.
The Arab Joint List party fell by one seat from last week’s poll, from 11 seats to 10, while the Labor-Gesher alliance rose one seat, from six to seven seats. The Democratic Union, which includes the Meretz party and Israel Democratic Party, held steady at seven seats.
Otzma Yehudit and Zehut both failed to clear the 3.25% electoral threshold in the poll, with 1.8% and 1.2% respectively. That represents a decrease compared to last week, when Otzma was projected to receive 1.9% and Zehut 2.3%.
The poll, which was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, prior to the announcement of a deal between Likud and Zehut for the latter to drop out of the race, also found that without Zehut in the election, the results would be essentially unchanged.
The seat allocation would remain identical to a scenario in which Zehut did run, and Otzma Yehudit – which has hoped to benefit from Zehut’s departure from the race – increased its vote total by just one-tenth of a percent, from 1.8% to 1.9%.