According to the weekend polls released on Friday, March 6, by the daily newspaper Maariv and on Kol Israel (the Voice of Israel – public radio), the Joint List is still predicted to be the third largest parliamentary block following the upcoming general elections with 13 seats. The Panels Research poll conducted on Wednesday and Thursday for Maariv indicates that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress this week did not help the Likud cut the Zionist Union’s two-seat lead.
Ayman Odeh from Hadash, the leader of the “Joint List.” (Photo: Al Ittihad)
If the March 17 election were held now, the Zionist Union would beat the Likud, 24 Knesset seats to 22, the poll found. In the previous week’s survey, the Zionist Union received 25 seats and Likud 23. The numbers for both the Zionist Union and the Likud fluctuated between before and after Netanyahu’s speech on Tuesday, March 3. A Panels Research poll taken for the Knesset Channel on Monday, the day before the speech, predicted 24 seats for the Zionist Union and 21 seats for the Likud. The poll which Panels conducted immediately after the speech on Tuesday night and Wednesday gave the Zionist Union 23 seats and the Likud 22, while the Zionist Union gained a seat in the poll taken on Wednesday and Thursday.
A close Netanyahu confidant told the Jerusalem Post that, despite Netanyahu’s repeated comments ruling out a unity government with the Zionist Union, “Bibi would be happy to form a unity government, as long as he can bring in the parties on the right first with coalition guidelines the right could accept.” Likud officials have spoken more openly recently about the possibility of the Zionist Union joining a Likud-led government, but they have ruled out a rotation in the Prime Minister’s Office between Netanyahu and Zionist Union leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni.
Minister Silvan Shalom told Kol Israel on Wednesday that he hoped the Zionist Union would join a Likud-led government. Likud faction chairman Ze’ev Elkin called the chances of a unity government “50-50.” Shas chairman Arye Deri said on Thursday he would prefer a unity government. As the Joint List is currently predicted to win 13 seats, making it the third largest party in the Knesset, in the event of a unity government being formed between the Likud and Zionist, Ayman Odeh from Hadash, the leader of the Joint List, would become the first non-Zionist leftist and Arab opposition leader in the history of the State of Israel.
When the Jerusalem Post poll asked respondents whether they support the formation of a unity government of the Likud and the Zionist Union, 54% said no, 28% yes, and 18% had no opinion. Significantly, 15% of those polled by the Post said that they were still undecided about how they are going to vote.
