3rd round of elections would only prolong political stasis — poll

With the ongoing coalition deadlock increasingly raising the possibility of fresh elections, a television poll forecasts another round of voting would only further prolong Israel’s political stalemate.

If elections were held today, Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party would win 35 seats, up two from its current tally, while Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud would pick up 34 seats, two more than it now has, according to a Channel 13 survey.

The Joint List, a slate of four predominantly Arab parties, would receive 13 seats, the same as it now has, while coalition kingmaker Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu would grow by a seat to nine.

The ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties would get six seats a piece, down from the nine and seven seats, respectively. Both parties have finished ahead of final poll results in the recent elections.

The center-left Labor-Gesher would drop a seat to five, while the left-wing Democratic Camp would fall from five to four seats.

New Right and Jewish Home-National Union, which ran in the last elections on the joint Yamina slate, would get four seats each. Together, that would be one more seat Yamina received in the September 17 elections.

Asked who they would blame if a third round of elections in less than a year is held, 41 percent of respondents say Netanyahu, 31% Liberman, 7% Gantz, 6% say none of the above and 15% don’t know.

The survey, conducted by pollster Camil Fuchs, included 704 respondents. It has a 4.1% margin of error