[Thus the right including Lieberman has 69 seats]
In new poll Likud drops by 3 mandates, Zionist Union loses 9; Yesh Atid becomes second largest party and Yisrael Beytenu nearly doubles.
ARUTZ SHEVA
A new poll published on Friday shows a slight drop for the ruling Likud party, and a complete free fall for the leftist Zionist Union which challenged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the last elections.
The poll, conducted this week for Maariv by the Panels Politics research institute, indicates Likud dropping from its current 30 mandates down to 27.
The loss is minimal in comparison with the Zionist Union led by MK Yitzhak Herzog, which is predicted to fall from 24 seats down to a mere 15.
MK Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid is the biggest winner in the poll, jumping from 11 seats to 18 and becoming the second largest party in the Knesset, outpacing Zionist Union.
The Arab Joint List party drops slightly from 13 mandates to 12 in the poll, while Jewish Home rises from eight to 12. MK Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu nearly doubled, shooting up from six to ten mandates.
MK Moshe Kahlon’s new Kulanu party fell sharply from ten to six seats, while Shas remained at seven.
United Torah Judaism rose from six to seven, while the far-leftist Meretz party increased from five to six seats.
Israel is clearly a right center right country. Any move towards the left would be very problematic for the continued existence of the country.