Polls: Netanyahu trounces Labor candidates

Neither MK Amir Peretz nor former environmental minister Avi Gabbay, the two men who will face off in a runoff for the Labor Party leadership on Monday, has any chance of defeating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a general election, according to polls broadcast on Wednesday.A Shiluv poll taken for the Public Broadcasting Corporation Kan found that only 11% of Israelis consider Gabbay to be the candidate most fit to be prime minister, compared to 29% for Netanyahu, 19% for Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid, and 10% for Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett. Thirty percent said none of the above.When those polled were asked who is most fit to be prime minister, with Peretz as a choice instead of Gabbay, Peretz fared even worse, with only 6% calling him most fit, far behind Netanyahu’s 28%, Lapid’s 19%, Bennett’s 9%, and the 38% who said none of the above.Gabbay and Peretz would both lead Labor to 18 Knesset seats, according to a poll taken for the Walla News website, behind Yesh Atid and the Likud. The poll was taken by pollster Prof. Camille Fuchs.A Channel 2 poll taken by Midgam found that Peretz would lead Labor to 15 seats and Gabbay to 14, also well behind the Likud and Yesh Atid.