Asked who is most fit to be prime minister, 45% said Netanyahu, 36% Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, 13% none of the above and seven percent said they did not know.
By GIL HOFFMANBenjamin Netanyahu (L) and Benny Gantz (R)(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is coming closer to obtaining the 61 seats for his right-bloc that he needs to form a right-wing government, polls found on Thursday, four days ahead of Monday's election.A Direct Polls survey conducted by right-wing pollster Shlomo Filber found that Netanyahu's bloc had 59 seats and his Likud would beat Blue and White 35 seats to 33."Two more mandates and we remove Israel from the political quagmire," Netanyahu wrote on Twitter. A Kantar poll taken for KAN News gave Netanyahu's bloc 58 mandates and predicted that the Likud would beat Blue and White 35 to 34.Panels Research's poll for The Jerusalem Post and its Hebrew sister newspaper Maariv gave Likud and Blue and White a tie at 34 mandates and the right-wing bloc 57 seats.The poll predicted 13 seats for the Joint List, nine each for Shas and Labor-Gesher-Meretz and seven each for Yamina, United Torah Judaism and Yisrael Beytenu.Asked who is most fit to be prime minister, 45% said Netanyahu, 36% Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, 13% none of the above and seven percent said they did not know.The poll of 534 respondents representing a statistical sample of the population was taken Wednesday and Thursday and had a margin of error of ±4.4%.The final polls permitted before the election will be broadcast on Channels 12 and 13 on Friday night.A government will not be formed as a result of Monday's race and Israelis are doomed to go to the polls for the fourth time, 30.4% of Israelis believe, according to a new Israel Democracy Institute poll published Thursday.
The poll asked 744 respondents representing a statistical sample of the voting age population what government they expect to see formed following Monday's election.The most common answer was the 30.4% who said no government would be formed and fourth elections will be held, followed by 22.1% who said a right-wing coaliton led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 16.7% who said a unity government led by Netanyahu.Only 11.9% said they expected a unity government led by Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, 6.7% said a Center-Left government led by Gantz and 0.7% admitted that they do not know or refused to answer. The answers were different when respondents were asked what government they preferred and a fourth election was not an option. A Netanyahu-led right-wing government was preferred by 29.6% and a Netanyahu-led unity government by 14.8% for a total of 44.4% who want Netanyahu to be prime minister.The percentage who want a Gantz-led government was 41.2%, which includes 21.4% who want him to lead a unity government and 19.8% who want a Center-Left government. The percentage who want an other government is 10.2% and 4.2% do not know or refuse to answer.Asked about the possibility of a minority government back from outside the coalition by the Joint List, 37.8% said they strongly oppose it 18.9% moderately oppose it, 20.7% moderately support it, 7.3% strongly oppose it and 15.2% said they did not know or refused to answer.Regarding the coronavirus, 60.1% said they believed the Health Ministry was dealing with it properly, 28.8% said it was not and 11.1% declined to answer or said they did not know.Asked if they were afraid someone in their family would catch the virus, 33.5% said yes, 62% said no and 2.5% did not know or refused to answer.The poll was conducted from February 19 to 23 and had a margin of error of ± 3.7%.
