Poll: With Ashkenazi at top Blue and White would beat Likud
The survey by Radio 103FM showed that if Gabi Ashkenazi were to head it, Blue and White would be the largest party with 35 seats and Likud would only receive 33.
By AVISHAI GRINZAIG/MAARIVBlue and White leaders, (L-R) Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, Moshe (Bogie) Yaalon, and Gabi Ashkenazi, at a press conference, April 1st, 2019(photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)
A Blue and White party led by current number four, Gabi Ashkenazi, would beat out Likud with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at its helm by two mandates in the upcoming election, a new poll showed Friday.The poll, carried out by Maagar Mochot for Nissim Mishal's program on Radio 103FM, reveals that if the elections were held today, the right-wing/ultra-Orthodox bloc would win only 60 Knesset seats without Avigdor Liberman's party, compared to 52 seats for the Center-Left.According to the poll, Likud is the largest party with 35 seats, followed by Blue and White with 33, Yisrael Beytenu and United Torah Judaism with 8 seats each, Shas with 7, Ta'al-Hadash with 6, the New Right and Meretz with 5 seats each, Labor and Balad on the verge of the electoral threshold with 4 seats each.The survey showed, however, that if Gabi Ashkenazi were to head Blue and White, it would be the largest party with 35 seats (compared to the 33 of Likud), and the right-wing – ultra-Orthodox bloc (without Liberman) would receive only 54 seats, while the center-left bloc would obtain 57 seats and Yisrael Beytenu 8 seats.Moreover, 34% of the right-wing-religious public and 39% of the general public said that the head of the religious-Zionist camp in the upcoming elections should be former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, 19% and 11% respectively indicated Naftali Bennett as the best leader, 16% and 8% Rabbi Rafi Peretz and 14% and 7% respectively voted for Betzalel Smotrich.Finally, 17% of the right-religious public and 35% of the general public replied that they did not know or gave other answers.
