Poll: Likud, Yesh Atid neck-and-neck

Yesh Atid faction chairman Ofer Shelah said he's happy with the results and Lapid will be the next prime minister.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Updated: DECEMBER 4, 2016 04:35
Netanyahu and Lapid at a cabinet meeting in October 2014. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Netanyahu and Lapid at a cabinet meeting in October 2014.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The Likud and Yesh Atid parties would be tied if an election were held last week, a Channel 2 News poll aired Friday night found.
The parties received 25 seats each, compared to the current Knesset, in which the Likud has 30 and Yesh Atid has 11.
They’re followed by the Joint List, steady at 13 seats, then Bayit Yehudi with 11, as opposed to its current eight.
Zionist Union makes the steepest drop, from 24 to 10 seats.
The poll gave Yisrael Beytenu eight seats, and Shas, United Torah Judaism, Kulanu and Meretz seven each.
The results would make it difficult for Yesh Atid leader Tommy Lapid to form a government without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as long as the haredi parties continue to refuse to serve in a coalition with him, but Netanyahu could form a coalition with a solid majority with his current partners and without Lapid.
Yesh Atid faction chairman Ofer Shelah said he’s happy with the results and Lapid will be the next prime minister.
Yesh Atid “is creating an alternative,” he said at a cultural event in Modi’in over the weekend. “There must be an alternative in the State of Israel that will represent the 60% of Israelis who say they want to replace the current prime minister. There’s a chance.”