If new elections were held today, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid faction would defeat the ruling Likud party by a five-mandate margin, a new Knesset poll shows.
According to the poll, produced by Panels Politics and published by the Hebrew daily Maariv Friday morning, former Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party would win 27 seats if new elections were held today – a gain of 16 mandates over the 11 won in the 2015 election.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud, however, would lose 8 mandates, falling from 30 to 22.
In distant third place is the Zionist Union, a joint list combining the Labor party, led by Avi Gabbay, and former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua faction. While the Zionist Union won 24 seats in 2015, the list would win just 14 if new elections were held today.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party would rise from 8 seats to 13, while the predominantly Arab Joint List party would fall from 13 to 11.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s centrist Kulanu party, which won 10 seats in 2015, would lose a single seat, falling to 9.
The haredi United Torah Judaism party gained two mandates in the poll, rising from six to eight seats, while the Shas party barely crosses the 3.25% minimum electoral threshold with four seats.
Defense Minister’s Yisrael Beytenu party received five seats in the poll, down from the six it won in 2015, while the far-left Meretz faction jumped from five seats to seven.
The poll also showed widespread disapproval of the recently passed ‘Supermarket Law’, which would permit the Interior Minister to strike down municipal bylaws allowing local businesses to operate during the Sabbath.
Earlier this week, the bill, which had been aggressively pushed by the coalition’s haredi partners, passed by a razor-thin margin, with 58 of the Knesset’s 120 MKs voting in favor, and 57 against.
The Yisrael Beytenu party joined opposition MKs in voting against the bill, while several MKs from the Likud and Kulanu parties abstained.