Asked whether they were satisfied with Netanyahu’s handling of the crisis over the coronavirus, 68% said yes, and only 30% said no. Among Likud voters, 95% said they were satisfied.
By GIL HOFFMANPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrates at the Likud victory rally on March 3, 2020. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
With a nearly 70% approval rating, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party would soar to 42 seats if an election were held this week, according to a poll taken for The Jerusalem Post.Conducted by Smith Research, the poll found that Likud would rise from its current 36 seats to 42 in a new election and that his right-wing bloc would climb to 64 seats, more than enough to form a stable right-wing government.Asked whether they were satisfied with Netanyahu’s handling of the crisis over the coronavirus, 68% said yes, and only 30% said no. Among Likud voters, 95% said they were satisfied.The public was also very pleased with the performance of Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who has been clashing with Netanyahu throughout the crisis. Sixty-five percent said they were satisfied with the way he has fulfilled his role during the crisis and 27% said they were unsatisfied.According to the poll, Bennett's Yamina Party would rise from 6 seats to 7, Shas would fall from 9 to 8 and United Torah Judaism would remain at 7. Yisrael Beytenu would fall from 7 seats to 6 and would be the smallest faction in the Knesset.Results on the Center-Left were impacted by the breakup of Blue and White and Labor-Gesher-Meretz.After Blue and White won 33 seats in the March 2 election, the poll predicted 18 for Benny Gantz on his own, and nine for Yesh Atid-Telem, led by Yair Lapid and Moshe Ya’alon.Labor would fail to cross the electoral threshold for the first time in history if it ran on its own, with the support of only 2.2% of respondents. MK Orly Levy-Abecassis’s Gesher was also wiped out in the poll.After getting in only two MKs as part of the seven-seat Labor-Gesher-Meretz alliance, the poll predicted seven seats for Meretz on its own.The Joint List would continue its rise and would win 16 seats after winning 15 in March.
In contrast to the high grades for Netanyahu and Bennett, the public gave very poor grades to Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman of UTJ. Only 28% said they were satisfied with the way he has done his job, while 69% were unsatisfied and 3% had no opinion.Among haredim (ultra-Orthodox) respondents, 87% said they were satisfied with Litzman, but among secular respondents, 87% said they were unsatisfied. Bennett was the only one of the three politicians to receive positive grades from all sectors, but that did not translate into a significant rise in mandates.
