Polls show that the Likud is getting even stronger. If elections were to be held today, the Likud would receive 43 Knesset seats - more than twice its current total - while Labor would receive only 20. So finds a survey taken by the Geocartographic Institute. Meretz would lose half its strength and receive 5 MKs, Shinui - 10 (up from 6), and the Arabs would remain almost steady at 9. On the right, the National Union, NRP, and Yisrael B'Aliyah retain their strength of 7, 5, and 4, respectively, while Shas would drop from 19 to 8, and United Torah Judaism would jump from 5 to 7.
On the other hand, Dr. Aharon Fein, of the Tatzpit Institute for Research, told Arutz-7 today that the Likud would not receive more than 32 seats, and that the National Union could get as many as 15 seats. "I believe that Sharon is mis-interpreting the people's support for his views," Fein said. "They are currently tired, and are willing to say they'll accept almost any solution - but this will not automatically translate into votes for him in January... Labor and Meretz party propaganda against Sharon will cause right-wing voters who are against a Palestinian state or who have suffered economically under Sharon to shift their votes to another right-wing party."