Blue and White, headed by Benny Gantz, has extended its lead over Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, according to a poll published by Ma'ariv on Friday. The poll projects 36 Knesset seats for Blue and White in the election on March 2, versus 30 seats for Likud. Blue and White's additional seats apparently come at the expense of the Democratic Union party, which for the first time in the current election campaign, Israel's third within a year, fails to pass the minimum vote threshold for winning any Knesset seats. The votes lost by Likud seem to have migrated to the Union of Right-Wing Parties (Ihud Miflagot Hayamin), headed by Rafi Peretz, which is projected to win seven seats. The projections for this list have been very volatile in recent polls, varying from seven down to zero. The Ma'ariv poll comes after Netanyahu's official request for immunity from prosecution, submitted last Wednesday.
If the poll result is borne out in the actual election, the right-wing block will have 58 of the Knesset's 120 seats, boosting Netanyahu's chances of receiving the mandate to form a new government. On the other hand, with Blue and White positioned as the largest party by a significant margin, it will be difficult for him to fulfill the mandate, and this is even before the fact that he is under indictment is considered.
The projected results for the remaining parties in this poll are fairly stable: the Joint Arab List has 13 seats; Shas and Yisrael Beitenu have 8; United Torah Judaism has 7; New Right has 6; and Labor-Gesher has 5..
The following are the projected numbers of seats for each party according to an average of five recently published polls:
Blue and White 35
Likud 32
Joint Arab List 13
Shas 8
United Torah Judaism 7
Yisrael Beitenu 7
New Right 6
Labor-Gesher 5
Democratic Union 4
Union of Right-Wing Parties 0
The average is of the following polls:
Ma'ariv, January 3
Channel 12 News, January 2
Channel 13 News, January 2
Kan, January 2
Channel 12 News, December 29.
The total number of seats in poll averages may not equal 120, the actual number of seats in the Knesset, because parties may pass the minimum vote threshold in some polls but not in others.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 5, 2020
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