The latest Panels Politics survey, published by FM103 Wednesday morning, shows a slight rise for Habayit Hayehudi led by Ayelet Shaked, to 2.6% – just .65% shy of the 3.25% vote threshold. As Shaked put it the other day, she already has three seats plus, all she needs is one portion of a seat to enter the 25th Knesset and become a legitimate contender for joining the Netanyahu government.
Netanyahu, for his part, is dropping a tad, as do Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir. Also down: Benny Gantz’s National Camp. Yesh Atid rises to 25 mandates.
Let’s look at the numbers.
Right-wing bloc:
Likud 32 + Religious Zionism 13 + Shas 8 + United Torah Judaism 7 = 60
Left-wing bloc:
Yesh Atid 25 + National Camp 11 + Israel Beiteinu 6 + Labor 5 + Meretz 5 = 52
Arab parties:
Hadash-Ta’al 4 + Ra’am 4 = 8
Balad, which has been un-banned by the High Court of Justice, lingers way behind with 1.6%.
Should Shaked hit 3% in the polls before November 1, she could experience some resurrection and maybe get in, which would be a huge bonanza to the Netanyahu coalition, presumably giving it 61 or even 62 (don’t forget, Shaked is getting her votes from potential Likud and Religious Zionism voters, so it’s a zero-sum game – Shaked wins some, then Smotrich & Ben Gvir lose some).
The poll was conducted on Tuesday with a sample of 700 Jewish and Arab adults aged 18 and up, with a sampling error of 3.7%.
