‘Israeli’ Election Poll Predicts Continued Gridlock, Yesh Atid With Record Seats

By Staff, Agencies

A week before the Zionist settlers head out to cast their votes in the entity’s fifth election in less than four years, a new TV poll on Tuesday forecast a record number of Knesset seats for incumbent Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, mainly at the expense of its allies Labor and Meretz, with the opposition bloc led by Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and his right-religious alliance still falling just short of a majority — but closer to it than Lapid’s bloc of centrist, center-right and center-left parties.

The survey aired by ‘Israeli’ Channel 13 news Tuesday gave Netanyahu’s bloc 60 seats, similar to previous polls over the past week, and still one short of a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

The same poll showed Lapid’s Yesh Atid with 27 seats, its highest showing in recent surveys, with Labor and Meretz dropping to four seats each.

Likud, meanwhile, was projected to earn 31 seats as the largest party. The far-right Religious Zionism was the third-largest party in the poll with 14 seats. The party — an alliance between former minister Bezalel Smotrich, extremist MK Itamar Ben Gvir and Noam faction — has recently shot up in the polls, though Netanyahu’s party has made gains at the expense of its partners in the run-up to past elections.