Poll finds Yamina nipping at Likud’s heels

A political poll by Channel 12 news shows a close race between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and Naftali Bennett’s righter-wing Yamina party.

According to the poll, if elections were held today, Likud would get 26 seats to Yamina’s 23. Likud has slipped in polls from as high as 41 seats as a protest movement against Netanyahu has gained steam and as the country has floundered in efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid, which had been hovering around 20 seats with Yamina, would snag 18 seats, the channel finds.

The survey has the Joint List steady at 15 seats, and Blue and White tied with Shas for 9 seats. Yisrael Beytenu (8), UTJ (7) and Meretz (5), round out the list of parties that would enter the Knesset.

The survey also finds the vast majority of respondents, 76%, think Netanyahu should fire Minister Gila Gamliel, after being told that Gamliel broke virus rules and traveled to her in-laws’ home.

The channel does not mention when or how the survey was taken, how many people were surveyed or anything else about its methodology. Israeli TV polls are notoriously slipshod and opaque, but often provide a general picture of trends.