From the Liveblog of
Monday, November 18, 2024
TV survey: Netanyahu’s Likud rising; 43% say he shouldn’t fire attorney-general, 37% say he should
A Channel 12 survey shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party would easily be the largest in the Knesset if elections were held today, but also that the current, governing Netanyahu-led bloc of parties — which holds 68 of the Knesset’s 120 seats — would fall far short of a majority.
Likud would win 26 seats in the Knesset, followed by Benny Gantz’s National Unity on 19, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid on 15, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu on 13, Yair Golan’s The Democrats on 12, Shas on 9, United Torah Judaism on 8, Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit on 8, and the mainly Arab parties Ra’am and Hadash-Ta’al on 5 seats apiece.
Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism and the Arab party Balad would win no seats, the poll shows.
The Netanyahu-led bloc — Likud, Shas, UTJ and Otzma Yehudit — would together win 51 seats, a rise of two seats since Channel 12’s previous survey. The anti-Netanyahu bloc would win 64. (Hadash-Ta’al would hold the other five.)
Were it to run, a putative party led by former prime minister Naftali Bennett would win 23 seats to Likud’s 24, the survey shows, taking much of its support from National Unity.
Were Likud’s former defense minister Yoav Gallant to set up a party and run, it would win 8 seats, the survey says, taking its support from several parties, but not Likud, which would win 26 seats. Gallant was fired two weeks ago by Netanyahu and has indicated no desire to set up his own party.
Asked whether they favor Netanyahu’s reported intention to fire Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miari, 43 percent of respondents say she should not be fired, while 37% back her ouster.
Asked if they favor a ceasefire in Lebanon, 47% say yes, with 35% saying no.
Asked if they support conscription for all ultra-Orthodox males, 54% say yes, while 37% back a negotiated compromise with the ultra-Orthodox parties on the issue.
The poll was conducted by Mano Geva and Midgam. Channel 12 does not give the margin of error.
The Times of Israel Community.