News 12 poll: Netanyahu strengthens, Smotrich weakens, and there is a turnaround in Arabism

September 22, 2022   

39 days until the elections - and the picture of the mandates is starting to become clearer: A mandate survey by the Midgam Institute headed by Mano Geva, published this evening (Thursday) in the main edition of News 12, shows that the Balad party, along with the Jewish Home party headed by Ayelet Shaked, remain far below the threshold. According to the survey, if the Knesset elections were held today, the Likud would gain 34 mandates compared to the previous survey. Yesh Atid remains stable at 23 mandates, and the state camp headed by Benny Gantz maintains its strength from the latest polls with 12 mandates. Religious Zionism led by Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir weakens by one mandate - and gains 11 mandates. Shas and United Torah Judaism maintain their strength from the previous poll with 8 and 7 mandates respectively, and Yisrael Beiteinu led by Avigdor Lieberman maintains its strength with 6 mandates. Michaeli's refusal to unite with Meretz may now seem a little more worrying – with the Labor Party weakening by one mandate to five, just like Meretz. After the dramatic split in the Joint List: the Ra'am party scores a considerable achievement, and for the first time ever becomes the largest Arab party in Israel. Mansour Abbas' party wins 5 mandates tonight, while the Hadash-Ta'al party (formerly the Joint List) led by Ayman Odeh and Ahmed Tibi wins only 4 mandates. Balad, which split from the joint list when the lists were closed, is far from the threshold and receives only 2.41% of support. If the Knesset elections were held today, the Netanyahu bloc would win 60 mandates, and the Change bloc 56 mandates. Alongside Balad, the Jewish Home Party, as mentioned, led by Ayelet Shaked, is also very far from the threshold - and receives only 1.8%. The only other party that receives 1.8% is the Economic Party led by Yaron Zelicha. Burning Young People, led by Hadar the Crowned, which has enjoyed many headlines in recent weeks, crashes to only 0.6%, as does the Economic Freedom Party led by Abir Kara. The Free Democratic Israel Party, led by Eli Avidar, receives 0.4%. And who is most suitable for the prime ministership? 46% believe that Netanyahu is the most suitable candidate for the position, while 28% believe that Lapid is the most suitable candidate. In the question between Netanyahu and Gantz - the opposition leader receives 47%, while the defense minister receives only 24% support. Against the backdrop of Lapid's speech at the General Assembly of UN tonight: 28% say they support the two-state solution, whereby a Palestinian state would be established alongside the State of Israel, while 49% said they oppose the two-state solution, and 23% responded that they do not know.