Further decline for Blue and White in polls, Right bloc takes the lead

The Likud fell to 28 seats, down from 30 in the last poll.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Benny Gantz (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Benny Gantz (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R)
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
A poll taken for Channel 12 by pollsters Mina Tzemach and Mano Geva found that if elections would be held now, Blue and White would win 31 seats, five less than in the last survey taken by the same pollsters eight days earlier.
The Likud also fell – to 28 seats, down from 30 in the last poll.
The poll also showed a 64 to 56 lead for the Right-Center bloc over the Left-Center bloc, the largest since elections were initiated on December 24.
But the poll indicated that results could change dramatically at the last moment, because six parties are teetering on the 3.25% electoral threshold with four seats each.
One of those is the New Right Party led by Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked. Former Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick is sixth on the list.
The poll predicted 10 seats for Labor; seven each for Hadash-Ta’al, United Torah Judaism and the Union of Right-Wing Parties; six for Shas; and four each for Kulanu, Yisrael Beytenu, Meretz, United Arab List-Balad, Zehut and New Right.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads Gantz in fitness to be prime minister by nine percent – 40% to 31% – according to the poll; a month ago, they were equally considered fit. Gantz had received 34% in the last poll.
Some 18% said neither of them were fit to be prime minister while 11% said they did not know.
Sources in Blue and White said they expected the party to rise in the polls as the election approaches.
The poll of 510 respondents represented a statistical sample of the Israeli population and had a 4.4% margin of error.