Merged Likud-Jewish Home list would win 40 seats, poll finds

Running together, Netanyahu’s and Bennett’s parties would be the largest Knesset faction by far

By Stuart Winer

You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

21 January 2015, 2:29 pm

Edit

Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.

A joint campaign list of the ruling Likud party and Jewish Home would win 40 seats in the coming elections, far ahead of the rival Labor-Hatnua joint Zionist Camp list, a Knesset Channel published Tuesday found.

Running independently, Likud, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, polled at 23 seats while the national-religious Jewish Home party, led by Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, came in with 16 slots in the survey. The poll found that the two would gain an extra seat by uniting to pull further ahead of the Zionist Camp, which polled at 24 seats.

The extra seat for the united list would likely come at the expense of former Likud MK Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu party, which would drop from eight to six seats if there was a merger, and/or the Shas party, which would drop from five to four seats, the survey found.

The Zionist Camp, formed by uniting the Labor party led by Isaac Herzog with Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party, would neither gain nor lose from a possible joining of the two leading right-wing parties.

Elections for the 20th Knesset are scheduled for March 17, but parties must submit their final campaign lists by the end of January.

Several reports in recent days have suggested that Likud and Jewish Home might consider running together, although Netanyahu has not commented on the idea, and Bennett said over the weekend that his party intends to run alone.

A merged Likud-Yisrael Beytenu list won 31 seats in the 2013 elections; that partnership was terminated last summer by Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman.

The full poll findings with a merged Likud-Jewish Home list: Likud-Jewish Home, 40 seats (compared to 29 in outgoing Knesset); Zionist Camp, 24 (21); Yesh Atid, 11 (19); United Arab List, 11 (11); United Torah Judaism, 7 (7); Meretz, 6 (6); Ha’am Itanu, 6 (2); Kulanu, 6 (0), Yisrael Beytenu, 5 (13), and Shas, 4 (10).

A Teleseker poll, published by Walla on January 21, also positing a joint Likud-Jewish Home list, found the seats being divvied up as follows: Likud-Jewish Home, 37; Zionist Camp, 25; United Arab List, 11; Yesh Atid, 9; Shas, 9; United Torah Judaism, 8; Kulanu, 8; Yisrael Beytenu,8; and Meretz, 5.