The Likud party would continue to be the largest party in the Knesset and would even gain a seat if early elections are held, a Channel 10 News poll found Thursday. Although the next general elections are due in November 2019, speculation about early elections has been growing in recent weeks.
According to the poll, Likud would end up with 31 seats, one more than it holds in the current Knesset, making party leader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a shoo-in for another term as premier.
The poll also found that the Zionist Union, currently the second-largest faction in the Knesset with 24 seats, would lose more than half its strength and end up with just 11 seats, becoming the fifth-largest party.
The Joint Arab List, a coalition of three Arab parties, is projected to maintain its current position with 13 seats.
The centrist Yesh Atid party, headed by former media personality Yair Lapid, is projected to rise from its current 11 seats to 15. The right-wing national-religious party Habayit Hayehudi, headed by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, is also projected to gain four seats, rising to 12.
The Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism is expected to rise from six to eight seats, and the left-wing Meretz party is projected to grow from five to seven seats.
Kulanu, the party headed by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, is expected to fall to six seats from its current 10.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman's hawkish party Yisrael Beytenu is expected to win six seats, up from its current five.
The newly formed, still-unnamed party headed by renegade Yisrael Beytenu MK Orly Levy-Abekasis is expected to win six seats as well.
The Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas is projected to win five seats, down from seven.
The poll also asked respondents which party they would support if former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz decides to launch a new party, as he has indicated he may do.
A Gantz-led party would win 13 seats, the poll found. It found that in such a scenario, Likud would win 29 seats, Yesh Atid 12, and the Zionist Union eight.
The poll questioned 718 respondents and had a 3.7 percentage point margin of error.
