Poll: Likud and Zionist Union deadlocked three weeks before election

Arabs come in as third largest party; separate poll shows that 40% of Israelis blame PM for housing crisis.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Netanyahu and Herzog (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST,REUTERS)
Netanyahu and Herzog
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST,REUTERS)
If the March elections were to take place today, the Likud, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Zionist Union, headed by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni, would be neck and neck at the ballot box, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Knesset Channel.
According to the channel's poll, which surveyed 700 participants, both of the major parties would receive 24 mandates in the Knesset, contrasting a previous survey which saw the Likud win only 23 mandates and showed the Zionist Union remaining steady at 24.
The Joint Arab List has increased its projection by one mandate since last week, bringing them to a total of 13 and making them the third largest party.
Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid would maintain 12 of its mandates, according to the poll;  Bayit Yehudi would trail at 11; Koolanu, headed by Moshe Kahlon, remains at eight, while Shas and United Torah Judaism were found to be polling at seven mandates respectively. Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu and the left-wing Zionist party, Meretz, both ranked in at 5 mandates each.
Eli Yishai's Yachad Party would fail to pass the threshold and become eligible for entry into the new Knesset.
In a separate poll, conducted a day before the State Comptroller's report on housing was set to be published, Panels Politics surveyed opinions on who is responsible for the current housing crisis.
Forty percent said that Prime Minister Netanyahu was responsible, while 22% pointed the finger at Yair Lapid. Ehud Olmert received 12% of the blame and Uri Ariel, Bayit Yehudi's Housing and Construction Minister, received 4%.
Twenty-one percent of those asked to give their opinions turned the request down.
The poll had a margin of error of 3.6%.