The left-wing – Arab bloc is now tied with the Netanyahu bloc, according a new poll released Friday.
The poll, conducted by Panels Politics and released Friday morning by Ma’ariv, found that if new elections were held today, the parties aligned with Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu – the Likud, the Religious Zionist Party, Shas, and United Torah Judaism – would win just 57 seats, down from 59 seats in the previous Panels Politics poll.
The right-of-center Yisrael Beytenu party, a member of the coalition government, would receive six seats, while the left-wing – Arab bloc would win a total of 57 seats.
This is the first time in over a year that the left-wing – Arab bloc has reached parity with the Netanyahu bloc in a publicly released poll.
The decline in the right-wing bloc comes from a two-seat drop for the Religious Zionist Party alliance with Noam and Otzma Yehudit. The joint rightist ticket fell from 13 seats in the previous poll, released on September 9th, to 11 seats Friday.
The Likud held steady at 31 seats, with Shas and United Torah Judaism retaining the 8 and 7 seats the two parties received respectively in the previous poll.
The Jewish Home ticket, led by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, remains under the 3.25% electoral threshold, but inched upwards, from 1.9% to 2.2%.
Yesh Atid held steady at 25 seats, while Labor gained one mandate since the previous poll, rising from four seats to five. Meretz is projected to win five seats.
The National Unity ticket, a joint list of the center-left Blue and White and center-right New Hope factions, remained at 12 seats in the new poll.
Among the Arab parties, the Joint List retained its six seats, while the United Arab List held steady at four seats.
The new poll does not take into account the last-minute split in the Joint List.
Balad, one of the three factions which made up the Joint List split off Thursday night, launching a separate Knesset bid. The Hadash and Ta’al factions remained in the Joint List.