Poll shows public slightly less critical on government’s handling of pandemic; Yamina weakening

A poll by Channel 12 News and the Midgam Institute appears to indicate the public view of the government’s handling of the pandemic is improving slightly.

Asked what they thought of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, 50% have a negative view while 47% have a positive view. However, the trend is generally positive, with a previous poll (the date of which Channel 12 did not provide) showing the ratios as 57% negative to 40% positive.

Asked specifically on the economic aspects of the pandemic, 67% have a negative view of the government’s conduct while 29% have a positive one — an improvement on 72% to 25% in a previous poll.

Meanwhile, Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party appears to be weakening in election polls and is on the verge of dropping down to single digits in projected Knesset seats.

The survey shows Likud winning 29 seats; Yesh Atid 18; New Hope 13; Yamina 10; the Joint List 9; Shas 8; UTJ 7; Yisrael Betyenu 7; Labor 6; Religious Zionism 5; Meretz 4; and Blue and White 4.

The anti-Netanyahu bloc has 61 seats; the Likud plus ultra-Orthodox parties bloc has 44 seats, with the presumed Netanyahu ally Religious Zionism adding 5 more; and Yamina, as an undecided factor, has 10.

No party leader has a clear path to a Knesset majority.

The poll was conducted among 503 adults who are a representative sample of the Israeli population, with a margin of error of 4.4%.