Poll gives Zionist Union four-seat advantage over Likud

The Zionist Union placed squarely in the lead with 25 Knesset seats in a Channel 2 poll published Tuesday, with the Likud party trailing by four with 21 – the widest gap measured in surveys so far.

The latest survey, published just a week before the country goes to the polls, put Joint (Arab) List and Jewish Home tied for third place with 13 seats each. Yesh Atid followed with 12. Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu snagged 8 seats, Shas 7, and Yisrael Beytenu and United Torah Judaism received 6 seats each. Meretz got 5 Knesset seats and Yachad got 4.

Regarding which candidate is seen as most suited to fill the role of prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu still enjoys a comfortable lead with 49% of respondents lending him support against Isaac Herzog’s 36%. Fifteen percent of respondents were not sure either way.

Based on these results, Channel 2 reported that Zionist Union leader Herzog could establish a narrow, 64-seat coalition with Yesh Atid, Kulanu, Shas, UTJ and Yisrael Beytenu – assuming that natural left wing ally Meretz would refuse to be part of a coalition with ultra-Orthodox parties.

A second option for Herzog revolves around the notion of sharing power with his rival, Netanyahu: a government with Zionist Union, Likud, Yesh Atid, Kulanu, Shas and UTJ would be 73 members strong.

On the other side, Netanyahu could easily establish a narrow right-leaning government with the Jewish Home, Shas, UTJ and Yachad, and reach 65 MKs.

Overall, 1,003 respondents took part in the survey, which had a margin of error of three percentage points.

Earlier Tuesday, a Knesset Channel poll gave the Zionist Union 24 seats, as compared to Likud’s 21.