Poll shows Likud, Yesh Atid rising, but no clear path to coalition

A Channel 13 election survey by pollster Kamil Fuchs shows the parties of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid increasing their power, with Gideon’s Sa’ar’s New Hope losing more ground and Labor making it into the Knesset under the new leadership of Merav Michaeli, who predictably won the party primary today.

The poll predicts Netanyahu’s Likud will get 32 seats in the 120-member Knesset; Lapid’s Yesh Atid will get 18; New Hope 14; Naftali Bennett’s Yamina 10; Joint List 10; United Torah Judaism 7; Shas 6; Yisrael Beytenu 6; Meretz 5; Blue and White 4; Ron Huldai’s The Israelis 4; and Labor 4.

Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party gets 2.6 percent, under the 3.25% electoral threshold, but is widely expected to join forces with the Jewish Home party.

Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox staunch allies receive just 45 seats according to the survey, versus 65 seats for parties that have said they would not join a Netanyahu coalition. Yamina, with 10 seats, is the only party that has not clarified its position.

The poll results do not pose a clear path to any obvious coalition.

The survey was conducted today among 694 respondents representing Israel’s adult population. The margin of error is 3.7%.