Poll: Likud plunges to 18 seats, Arab parties reach record high

A new Maariv poll published Friday morning found that the Arab parties each gained one Knesset seat this week, bringing their combined total to a record 14 seats. Likud dropped two seats to just 18. The poll indicated that if elections were held today, Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar! party would win 21 seats, making it the largest in the Knesset, while the Likud would follow as a close second with 18 seats. Third-largest in the Knesset would be Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid's "Together" party, with 13 Knesset seats. Largest of the smaller parties, the "Democrats" would win nine seats. Four parties would win eight seats each: Yisrael Beytenu, Otzma Yehudit, the Joint List, and United Torah Judaism (UTJ). Sephardic-haredi Shas would win seven seats. Tied with six seats each are the Religious Zionist Party and Ra'am (United Arab List). In this poll, both Ofer Winter's Amcha Yisrael and the joint Reservists and Economic Party pass the threshold, winning four seats each. Blue and White (1.1%), The Haredi Public (0.5%), Noam LeYisrael (0.5%), and Tzomet Beit Yisrael (0.2%) fail to cross the electoral threshold. The percentage of undecided voters stood at 5.2%. Divided into blocs, the current coalition partners would win 47 seats, while the current Knesset's center-left bloc would win 51 seats. The Arab parties would win a record 14 seats. Amcha Yisrael, which has declared itself right-wing and would recommend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for another term, would bring the right-religious bloc to 51 seats, tying with the center-left bloc; however, Amcha Yisrael has not ruled out joining the center-left in a government , even though their first choice is Netanyahu. It is not clear who the Reservists and Economic Party would join with.