Right may win elections, but only if Kulanu joins the coalition - poll

A razor-thin right wing majority would still be elected after indictment announcements against Netanyahu.

By ZACK EVANS
Moshe Kahlon (left) and Benjamin Netanyahu (right). (photo credit: REUTERS)
Moshe Kahlon (left) and Benjamin Netanyahu (right).
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Right will win the upcoming elections even after Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit announced his intention to indict Prime Minister Netanyahu on various charges, according to a poll conducted by i24 News and Israel Hayom.
The Blue and White faction would win the most votes at 38, ahead of the Likud's 29 seats. However, the right-wing parties would be able to form a coalition of 63 seats, a scenario which, if it comes to pass, all but guarantees that Netanyahu will be reelected.
Surprisingly, the union of Bayit Yehudi with the extreme-right Otzma Yehudit was projected to win nine seats in the poll. If this turns out to be the case on election day, it would mean that two members of Otzma Yehudit, whose ideology descends from Rabbi Meir Kahane, would enter the Knesset. Kahane advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel unless they accepted a lower status than Jewish citizens.
The poll also predicts that former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman's party, Yisrael Beiteynu, would not pass the threshold to enter the Knesset, indicating that Lieberman might not return to government.
There is one possible weak link in the right-wing coalition outlined in the poll: the Kulanu Party. They would win four seats, but if they choose not to sit in as part of the right-wing coalition, the coalition would only have 59 seats, which not enough to form a government.