Third elections won’t break Israel’s political deadlock — poll

There may be no end in sight to Israel’s ongoing political deadlock, with a television poll published this evening predicting further stalemate in the event of a third round of elections.

According to the Channel 13 survey, Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White would remain as the largest party after fresh elections, growing from 33 to 34 seats. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud would also see a one seat bump, rising to 33 seats.

The Joint List of four predominantly Arab parties would preserve its strength at 13 seats, as would Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu at eight seats.

Shas would fall to seven seats from the nine it now has, while the fellow ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism would stay at seven seats.

The center-left Labor-Gesher would drop from one seat from its current tally to five, while Jewish-Home National Union, which ran in the last elections as part of the national-religious Yamina alliance, would pick up five seats.

New Right, which was also part of Yamina, would get four seats, as would the left-wing Democratic Camp.

Overall, Likud and its religious allies would have 56 seats, the same that the center-left and Arab parties would receive. Liberman would retain his status as kingmaker, holding the balance of power between the blocs.

Asked who they would hold responsible if the country goes to elections for the third time in less than a year, 37 percent of respondents say Netanyahu, 30% say the Likud leader and Gantz equally and another 21% say the Blue and White chief. Eight percent say neither, while four percent don’t know.

The survey was conducted for the network by pollster Camil Fuchs. It included 706 respondents and had a 4.1% margin of error.