A new poll conducted by Prof. Camille Fuchs and published by Channel 13 News shows that if elections were held today, the Netanyahu bloc would receive just 59 Knesset seats, two less than a similar poll from a week ago and two less than the 61 needed to form a majority coalition.
The decline in support for the Netanyahu bloc follows the merger of the Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties. The poll shows the combined list winning twelve seats compared to 16 seats in the previous poll when they were still running separately.
The Likud party would be the largest party with 32 seats, while the Yesh Atid party would be second with 24 seats.
The State Camp would win 13 seats, Shas eight seats, United Torah Judaism seven seats, and Yisrael Beytenu six seats.
The Labor and Joint Arab List parties would receive five seats each, while Ra'am and Meretx would just pass the electoral threshold with four seats each.
The Zionist Spirit party would not pass the electoral threshold.
On the question of suitability for the premiership, Benjamin Netanyahu continues to lead over Yair Lapid with 48 percent support compared to Lapid who receives 31 percent support (an increase of two percent compared to last week). Even between Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, the defense minister is gaining a little, but Netanyahu still leads by a large margin with 48 percent support compared to 29 percent for Gantz.
The survey examined who handled the issue of the Iran nuclear deal better. A plurality of 43 percent think that Netanyahu handled it better, compared to Lapid and Gantz who received only 21 percent. 12 percent answered that both handled it equally and 24 percent answered that they do not know.
Another question was whether citizens would like Itamar Ben-Gvir to serve as a minister in the Israeli government. 48 percent answered that they don't want him to, compared to 27 percent who answered that they would like to see him at the government's table. 17 percent answered that they don't care and eight percent answered that they don't know.