Likud falters slightly in new poll, new kingmaker appears to emerge

The Likud party would receive 28 seats if elections were held today, according to a Hadashot poll.

The second-largest party would be Yesh Atid, with 20 seats, followed by the Zionist Union with 14, the Joint (Arab) List with 12, the Jewish Home with 10. United Torah Judaism would receive seven seats, it predicted, with Kulanu and Meretz receiving six seats apiece, Yisrael Beytenu winning five, and Shas hovering just above the electoral threshold with four seats.

A surprising kingmaker emerges from the poll: independent lawmaker Orly Levy-Abekesis, who is predicted to receive eight Knesset seats for her as-yet unnamed new political party.

With the center-left bloc receiving an overall 52 seats, and the center-right 60, Levy-Abekesis’s theoretical eight seats could prove fateful for the makeup of a future coalition, it notes.