Netanyahu ahead of Gantz in polls, but unity government still the likeliest outcome
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Days before Israel’s third election in a year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks slated to overcome rival Benny Gantz, but not to win handily enough to become Prime Minister outright without help from other parties.
Two different polls, one from Channel 12 news and the other from Kan news, showed Netanyahu’s Likud one seat ahead of Gantz’s left-wing Blue and White Party, which has led the right-wing bloc by two to four seats in every previous poll of this election cycle.
Likud member Joav Kisch told JNS that “the polls are showing that our bringing out the vote effort is working. There are a few hundred thousand Likud voters who didn’t vote last time.”
The Knesset member added that he hoped the renewed efforts of the right would “get to [the] 61 seats for the right-wing/religious bloc” necessary for Netanyahu to be established as Prime Minister without relying on seats from other less ideologically aligned parties.
Despite the optimism of Likud members, the polls also predicted that Netanyahu and his bloc comprised of right-wing and orthodox parties will only attain 56 to 58 seats and not an outright majority in the 120-member Knesset, meaning some sort of compromise will likely be necessary even if they win.
Knesset member and Blue and White campaigner Boaz Toporovsky said that the left, for its part, was “working hard to make sure that these elections will be the last in this cycle.”