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Polls show Netanyahu likely to form next Government
Three separate polls in Yediot Ahronoth, Maariv and Israel Hayom predict the Blue and White party will win more seats than Likud, but that Benjamin Netanyahu has a better chance of forming a governing coalition after the elections.
In the Yediot Ahronoth poll, the Blue and White party are predicted to win 31 seats and the Likud 27 seats. Orly Levi-Abekasis’ Gesher party is not predicted to win any seats but Moshe Feiglin’s far-right libertarian Zehut party is predicted to win five seats.
In the Maariv poll Blue and White are on 30 seats, Likud 29 seats. In Israel Hayom Blue and White are on 32 seats, Likud 28 seats.
Feglin’s popularity has surged in the last three weeks and analysts predict he could be the kingmaker after the elections. He told the Haaretz Democracy Conference yesterday that Netanyahu: “Is an incredibly talented individual. He has a difficult problem – he has no strategy … the right has no direction and never had, but Gantz is even worse.”
Feiglin has previously said he could join a coalition headed by Benjamin Netanyahu or Benny Gantz.
Levi-Abekasis also spoke at the conference and said she was confident her newly formed party will pass the electoral threshold and win more than 3.25 per cent of the vote but that she has “no particular affection for either Gantz or Netanyahu”.
Hadash-Ta’al Chairman Ayman Odeh discussed his party’s position on joining a future coalition, saying that he was: “Willing to sit [in government] with anyone,” but stressed that: “We want to take down Benjamin Netanyahu. But we’re not in Gantz’s pocket. He’ll have to come to us, commit to overturn the Nation-State Law, to fight crime among Arab citizens and handle budgets allocated to Arab society.”
Odeh said the centre-left bloc was “complicit in the incitement against” Israeli Arabs, which was: “Only helping the right. The left should say loud and clear: We’re citizens. It must respect our political leadership.”
Blue and White candidate Ofer Shelah told the conference: “If we get five seats or more than Likud, Gantz would lead the next coalition government.”
A new campaign film released yesterday on social media by Likud features Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angering former US President Barack Obama at a meeting in the White House by telling Obama why Israel will not withdraw to the pre-1967 lines.