Israeli Press
Channel 12 poll leaves Eisenkot's bloc one seat short without Arab lists
Graphic: Times of Palestine
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A Channel 12 poll published on Monday evening put Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar in first place with 24 seats and Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud second on 22, a gain of one and a loss of one since the channel's previous survey.
The Israeli daily Maariv, which carried the figures, put the anti-Netanyahu bloc at 70 seats against 50 for the coalition parties, and reported that Naftali Bennett and Yair Golan both strengthened.
Haaretz led on the arithmetic underneath. Take the Arab lists out of the 70 and the parties opposing Netanyahu hold 60 — one short of the 61 needed to govern.
That single seat is the whole Palestinian stake in this election, and it has been the shape of every survey for months. The Zionist opposition cannot reach a majority without Ra'am and Hadash-Ta'al, and much of it has said it will not sit with them.
Netanyahu's own bloc trails the Zionist opposition alone by ten seats. Speaker Amir Ohana conceded to Maariv on Sunday that the coalition's electoral position is difficult.
Eleven weeks remain before the 27 October vote. The poll was taken as the prime minister was publicly rejecting the fifteen-point disarmament plan while the strikes in Gaza stayed halted, and neither the annexation platforms nor the future of the Gaza file appeared in the questions the channel put to voters.
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