Polls claim no chance of either Labor leader defeating current Prime Minister.
By GIL HOFFMANPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aboard the USS George H.W. Bush docked in northern Israel's Haifa Port, July 3, 2017(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
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.