Poll: Bennett-led bloc would win between 62-72 seats if elections held today; PM’s coalition would receive 48

If elections were to be held in Israel today, the parties that make up the current Netanyahu-led government would only receive 48 seats, falling far short of the 60-seat minimum needed to form a government, a new Channel 12 poll finds.

In contrast, a bloc of current opposition parties led by former prime minister Naftali Bennett and his newly registered party would receive 72 seats, the poll finds. As it is unclear whether the Arab-majority Hadash Ta’al or Islamist Ra’am party would join such a government, the poll also notes that the bloc would receive 62 seats without their participation, clearing the 60-seat threshold.

The poll was conducted today, after the spiritual leader of Degel Hatorah, one of the two factions that make up the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, instructed their MKs to introduce a bill to dissolve the Knesset due to the coalition’s failure to pass a law exempting yeshiva students from conscription.

The two largest parties in the Knesset, according to the poll, would be Bennett’s party with 24 seats, followed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud with 22 seats.

The remainder of the 120 Knesset seats would be split as follows: The Democrats 12, Shas 10, Yisrael Beytenu 10, Yesh Atid 9, Otzma Yehudit 8, UTJ 8, National Unity 7, Hadash-Ta’al 5 and Ra’am 5.

The Religious Zionism and Balad parties would get no seats.

In light of UTJ’s threats to dissolve the coalition over IDF conscription laws, Channel 12 asks respondents whether they would want the ultra-Orthodox parties to be part of a future government.

Fifty-five percent of respondents said they would not want them to be part of the coalition, 33% said they would and 12% said they didn’t know.