If the prime minister and those around him have a tendency to panic without cause, now there's a cause. Likud-Beytenu has recorded an unprecedented achievement, and sunk to a low of 32 projected Knesset seats, according to the latest poll by Rafi Smith for "Globes". The joint list has dropped 10 seats in two months.
According to this poll, Netanyahu will remain prime minister, but Likud is much diminished. Naftali Bennett and his Habayit Hayehudi party, which has soared to 16 seats, is sucking votes from Likud, not with a straw, but with a fireman's hose. The candidates on Bennett's list are actually no more right-wing than several on Likud's, but Bennett is perceived as a novelty, and the Israeli public, which is looking for new faces to fall in love with, is currently in love with Bennett, who has yet to get himself dirty, and is winning broad support.
When the Knesset was dissolved in mid-October, no-one in Israel's political establishment imagined that the National Religious Party would be the trend of the 2013 election. It is now called Habayit Hayehudi, but in essence it is still the battered National Religious Party, which fell to three seats in the previous election. Who would have thought that Yair Lapid, who three months ago talked of 22 setas, would now be at less than half that level (10), and that Labor's Shelly Yachimovich, who thought that she was closing the gap on Likud, would decline to an even lower number of seats (17) than Amram Mitzna and Amir Peretz garnered when each led the Labor Party (19). All that is left for Yachimovich is to try to consolidate her status as leader of the opposition, and today she announced that she would not join a Netanyahu government. The race now is between her and Bennett for silver and bronze.
Poll results
The results show the projected number of seats for each party according to the current survey, followed by the number of seats in the previous survey on December 27, and, in parentheses, the number of seats in the current Knesset.
Likud-Beytenu 32, 34 (42)
Labor 17, 18 (13)
Habayit Hayehudi 16, 14 (7)
Shas 10, 11 (11)
Yesh Atid 10, 10 (-)
Hatenuah 10, 10 (-)
United Torah Judaism 5, 6 (5)
Meretz 4, 4 (3)
Hadash 4, 4 (4)
National Democratic Assembly 4, 4 (4)
Ra'am-Ta'al 3, 3 (3)
Am Shalem 3, 2 (-)
Kadima 2, 0 (28).
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 3, 2013
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013