The Likud will be the largest party in the Knesset after the 2015 snap elections, according to two surveys conducted Tuesday, shortly after Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu announced that he would dissolve his government.
According to a Channel 10 poll, Likud would win 22 seats, Jewish Home 17, Labor 13, Yisrael Beytenu 12, Moshe Kahlon’s as-yet-unnamed party 12, Yesh Atid nine, United Torah Judaism eight, Shas seven, Meretz seven, Hatnua four and the Arab parties nine.
A survey by Channel 2 showed Likud with 22, Jewish Home 17, Labor 13, Kahlon and Yisrael Beytenu with 10 apiece, Yesh Atid with nine, Shas with nine, United Torah Judaism with eight, Meretz with seven, Hatnua with four, and the Arab parties with 11.
Both polls would have made pleasant reading for Likud leader Netanyahu, showing a strengthening of the right, and numerous potential coalition options for him.
The results also projected that Shaul Mofaz’s Kadima party would not pass the minimum 3.25 threshold to make it into the Knesset in 2015.
According to the Channel 2 survey, 55 percent of those asked were opposed to the early elections, while 38% supported the move. When asked who was to blame for the collapse of the coalition, 39% of respondents blamed Netanyahu, 30% blamed Yair Lapid and 23% blamed both.
The Channel 10 poll had 49% blaming both Netanyahu and Finance Minister Lapid, 25% only Netanyahu, 21% Lapid and 5% other factors.
Asked who was the most suitable prime minister, 31% said Netanyahu, 19% said Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, 19% Labor’s Isaac Herzog, 12% Avigdor Liberman, 12% Kahlon, and 7% Lapid.
Read more: The Times of Israel
{Matzav.com Israel}
Every 3 year old knows that “polls” in Israel are not worth the paper they’re written on. They change every 5 minutes.
Last election, Bennet and Lapid made an alliance. They knew that between them, they had enough seats to make it impossible to form a government without them.
They then said take us both or neither of us. They used the alliance to get major concessions.
This time, the religious parties will get enough seats between them to do the same.
It is high time to unite and hold firm. If the religious make the same alliance, without breaking, the new government would be extremely tilted in favor of a religious agenda.
The pasuk states ???? ????? ???
Danon: We Must Return to the Likud Way
Likud MK says that the Likud must not try to “appease Tzipi Livni and her colleagues”.
By Benny Toker and Elad Benari: 12/3/2014,
MK Danny Danon, who heads the Likud Central Committee, on Tuesday evening said that elections could have been prevented, and said he hoped the Likud will learn the lesson from the coalition collapse.
“The makeup of the coalition undermined the governance, the mistake was that instead of forming a government with Bennett and the hareidi parties, [Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu] first of all added Tzipi Livni. That was a mistake, and we saw that Livni and Lapid did nothing but mess things up, Danon told Arutz Sheva, hours after Netanyahu fired Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua), effectively disbanding the government.
He added that the Likud must not be complacent and return to its nationalist roots.
“If we do not go back to the path of the Likud we are in trouble. Freezing construction and releasing terrorists is not the Likud, said Danon. We must return to our way soon, we are now steering the wheel and we must not be afraid. A leadership that wants to appease Tzipi Livni and her colleagues is not a leadership.”
Danon called on new faces to join the Likud, saying, “Immediately after the law dissolving the Knesset passes, well gather the Likud Central Committee and well be open to anyone who wants to join. I’m proud of the Likud which made it possible for Moshe Kahlon, who came from a development town, to be the Minister of Communications and which made it possible for me to get to where I am. The Likud is a democratic party that gives a chance to everyone.
Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) has summoned all Knesset party heads to his office Wednesday morning at 10:00 a.m. to set the date for snap elections.
It is expected that the elections will be held late next March.
Channel 2 polls published Tuesday evening indicated that if elections were held today, Yesh Atid would nosedive from 19 to nine mandates, Likud would stay the largest party at 22 and Jewish Home would come in second with 17.