Midgam conducted a poll of 500 people with a 4.4% margin of error that was broadcast by Channel 12 on Jan 5 2021.
Current Knesset seats in [brackets]
27 [35] Likud (Netanyahu)
18 [03] New Hope (Saar)
14 [05] Yamina (Bennett)
13 [18] Yesh Atid – Telem (Lapid)
10 [15] The Joint List (Odeh)
08 [09] Shas (Deri)
08 [07] United Torah Judaism (Litzman)
06 [07] Yisrael Beitenu (Lieberman)
06 [00] The Israelis (Huldai)
05 [13] Blue & White/Israel Resilience (Gantz)
05 [03] Meretz (Horovitz)
Under 3.25% Electoral Threshold
2.8% [–] New Economy (Zalika)
1.5% [03] Labor (A. Peretz)
0.8% [00] Tnufa (Shelach)
0.3% [01] Bayit Yehudi (R. Peretz)
0.1% [01] Gesher (Orly Levy)
0% [00] Otzma (Ben Gvir)
Scenario Poll: Bennett & Smotrich split
26 [35] Likud (Netanyahu)
17 [03] New Hope (Saar)
16 [03] Yamina (Bennett)
13 [18] Yesh Atid – Telem (Lapid)
10 [15] The Joint List (Odeh)
08 [09] Shas (Deri)
08 [07] United Torah Judaism (Litzman)
06 [07] Yisrael Beitenu (Lieberman)
06 [00] The Israelis (Huldai)
05 [13] Blue & White/Israel Resilience (Gantz)
05 [03] Meretz (Horovitz)
Under 3.25% Electoral Threshold
2.3% [02] Smotrich Party
Additional Question:
Who is most suited to be Prime Minister?
27% Netanyahu, 16% Saar, 14% None, 14% Lapid, 13% Bennett, 10% Don’t know, 6% Gantz
Finally the Religious Zionists have broken from Bennet. Biggest mistake they ever made. I hope this time its permanent.
Bennet has delusions of grandeur. He believes that he deserves to be Prime Minister and that he actually would be good at the job. While he may be a potentially competent Minister and Knesset member, his honor and haughtiness prevent him from serving the public properly. He attacks Netanyahu and teams up with Gideon Saar while we all know that he will (sarcastically) “put aside his own preferences to reluctantly join the Netanyahu government” after Netanyahu wipes the floor [With at least 30-35 seats]…
I have to familiarize myself with new parties every single Israeli election unlike the US or UK. The parties split, merge, and disappear every couple of years. It’s never dull! I have a hard time believing that 81/120 seats is actually right/religious. Could the demographics have shifted that radically? Centrist voters supporting Saar in order to get rid of Netanyahu may be uncomfortable with the fact Saar is to the right of Netanyahu and Saar’s party has a vote-sharing agreement with Yamina. The Joint List always underperforms in polling but overperforms on election day. You can almost pencil in 13-15 mandates automatically.
Figuring out coalitions is a mess right now since certain right-wing parties won’t sit with religious parties and other right wing parties won’t sit with the Likud so long as Netanyahu is in charge. If that 81/120 is anywhere close to being true then it’s malfeasance for the right/religious wing to need Yesh Atid, Blue & White, or Huldai to form a coalition. There’s no combination I see where they don’t bring in a left/centrist party which will of course be given outsized influence. Most of this disunity (apart from Liberman vs. Haredim) would go away if one man under indictment steps away. My own country’s (the United States) right wing has been badly undermined by one man’s narcissism. He made himself the issue in 2018: we lost the House of Representatives. He lost the presidency in 2020 and then proceeded to push meritless fraud allegations to justify his failure. And today, we lost the Senate because of his reckless conspiracy-mongering which depressed right-wing voters in Georgia. We’re lucky the Democrats won’t have enough votes to pack the Supreme Court. Netanyahu is definitely not a clinical narcissistic unlike Trump but he still views himself as totally indispensable to the State. No one man (other than perhaps George Washington) is indispensable to a democracy.
[Preface: I have never voted for Likud and don’t plan on ever voting for them, but still…]
Apologies, but i think you misunderstand the situation, both in Israel and in the US.
In Israel, the public has indeed moved right. Perhaps not as much as the polls promise (81 seats), but still a strong 70-75, just as past elections have shown. People have seen the accomplishments in which Netanyahu has succeeded in working out despite all the odds. The Left, just a short 20-30 years ago, wrecked Israel with their pathetic overtures to peace with a people who just were not interested and the public paid the price of death and destruction, physically, financially, emotionally. Netanyahu didn’t make the elections all about him, his jealous competitors made it about bashing him. The only way to combat that is to push himself and all the good things he did do for Israel. That’s politics. It always was and always will be. Don’t tell him to back down before he even has a fair trial…
Regarding Trump, its the same thing. From day one, actually before he even won the primary, there were people, from both sides, who decided that they will attack him every second, every day, every little stupid thing he does (and there were many of those). They never gave him a fair chance, and didn’t try to work with him. Just bash bash bash. I’m sorry, but you don’t tell such a guy, “just back down”. You support his fight against the ones who have declared war against him.
Netanyahu and Trump were both leaders and both did many good things for their respective countries. They should be given the respect they deserve and not attacked at every opportunity.
I must say to my mind both Moe and Sean have made fair points. No question that both Trump and Bibi have faced a very antagonistic and biased media onslaught. I personally believe that had Covid not happened Trump would have won easily. It constricted his campaigning style and his handling of Covid was messy. He is unfortunate in having to face an election during the pandemic, almost all incumbents in all countries are judged to have handled it badly. There is simply no way for any of them to win in this environment. Bibi I suspect will be luckier, firstly he is head and shoulder above any other party leader and secondly the vaccine campaign is likely to work in his favour.