A new poll of Israeli voters published on Sunday showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s center-right Likud party gaining on its nearest rival, former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party, and appearing likely to form the next government after elections in April.

The poll conducted for Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot indicates that while Blue and White would still gain the most Knesset seats, Netanyahu is better positioned to form a working coalition with the other right-wing and religious parties.

Blue and White leads the poll with 33 seats, three or four seats down from previous poll results. Likud comes in at 29. The center-left Labor party would win ten. Religious parties Yahadut HaTorah and Shas would win seven and six seats, respectively. Arab parties the Joint List and Balad would win seven and four seats respectively.

The national-religious Union of Right-Wing Parties, which includes the controversial far-right Otzma Yehudit party, would win six. Left-wing Meretz would take five seats. The New Right party would win five as well. Center-right parties Yisrael Beiteinu and Kulanu would both win four.

Further complicating the picture are the hard-right Zehut party and centrist Gesher party, both of which polled below the threshold to enter the Knesset, potentially wasting right-wing and centrist votes that could have gone to the larger parties.

The results show Netanyahu would be able to put a narrow right-wing coalition together consisting of 61 out of 120 Knesset seats.

Source: https://www.algemeiner.com/2019/03/10/new-poll-shows-netanyahu-gaining-on-rivals-likely-to-form-next-government/

The post New Poll Shows Netanyahu Gaining on Rivals, Likely to Form Next Government first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The big news of the day in Israel on Sunday was how dangerously close Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is to collapse.

According to some sources within the coalition, Israel might have early elections as soon as June of this year.

The issue at hand is passing the national budget, which the ultra-Orthodox parties in Netanyahu’s coalition are refusing to support unless the prime minister first pushes through legislation exempting Jewish seminary students from serving in the IDF.

“Secular” Israelis have long balked at the status quo that enables the religious sector to skirt the obligations and responsibilities carried by every other Israeli Jew.

The heads of the other parties in Netanyahu’s coalition have vowed to never allow such “exemption” legislation to pass.

If the ultra-Orthodox parties were to revolt, the Opposition would presumably call for a vote of no-confidence in Netanyahu, which would pass with the backing of the religious factions, necessitating either the formation of a new government coalition, or early elections.

Complicating matters further is that Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon is threatening to pull his Kulanu Party out of the coalition if Netanyahu gives in to ultra-Orthodox “blackmail” and postpones the budget.

Netanyahu bemoaned that “there is no reason for us to go to early elections” over the question of ultra-Orthodox Jews doing military service.

But, Israel has gone to early elections over less in the past, and that appears to be where she’s headed now.

“Israel will be headed to the polls within the coming months,” announced Hadashot news (formerly Channel 2 News), estimating that the vote would take place in June.

Netanyahu officially still has another year-and-a-half on his current term.

Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates

Source: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/Default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=33502

The post Netanyahu Government Dangerously Close to Collapse first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.