The escalation of violence on Israel's border with the Gaza Strip seems to have strengthened the large parties. With three weeks to go before Israel's general election on September 17, its second within six months, a poll published by Kan yesterday evening projects 32 Knesset seats for Likud and 31 for Blue and White. The average gap between the two major parties in opinion polls has narrowed from two seats to one.
At the other end of the scale, Labor-Gesher, which in the past two weeks has been hovering around four-six seats, has strengthened to seven, while the Democratic List has dropped to six seats, its lowest showing since it was formed. Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beitenu party has fallen below double figures to nine seats, while Yemina, led by Ayelet Shaked, drops to ten. The two seats lost by these two right-wing parties presumably went to Likud, in line with Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu's announced strategy of focusing on achieving as large a representation as possible for Likud itself, as opposed to the right-wing block as a whole, by taking votes from other parties of the right.
As for Labor-Gesher, it could be that the parting of its leader Amir Peretz from the moustache that has been his trademark for so long brought him a couple of seats from the Democratic Union list, or perhaps it was his firm declaration that he would not sit in a government led by Netanyahu that brought traditional left-wing voters back to him.
The predictable migration of right-wing votes back to Likud continues at a slow pace. As so often in the past, more than they blame Netanyahu for the tension in the south, Israeli voters trust him to handle the situation.
The numbers of Knesset seats projected for each party presented here are based on an average of the following polls:
A Kan 11 poll carried out on August 26
A Channel 12 News poll of August 23
A Ma'ariv-FM103 poll of August 23
An Israel Today-i24News poll of August 23
A Walla! News poll of August 21
Because of the averaging process, the total number of seats may not be 120 - the actual number of seats in the Knesset.
Likud - 31
Blue and White - 30
Joint Arab List - 11
Yemina - 10
Yisrael Beitenu - 9
Shas - 7
United Torah Judaism - 7
Democratic Union - 7
Labor-Gesher - 6
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 27, 2019
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2019