Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett and MK Ayelet Shaked's decision to split from the party and form a new faction they are calling the New Right has left Habayit Hayehudi in a dreary position, polls published Sunday show.
A Channel 10 News poll found that if the Knesset election, scheduled for April 9, 2019, were held today, the New Right party would win eight seats, whereas Habayit Hayehudi would win only three, below the minimum 3.25% electoral threshold required for a party to serve in the Knesset.
According to Channel 10, the split would not affect the Likud, which would win 30 seats. The poll also projected 14 seats for former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz' new Israel Resilience Party; 13 seats for the Joint Arab List; 11 for the center-left Yesh Atid; and only eight for the Zionist Union, an alliance of Labor and MK Tzipi Livni's Hatnuah party.
The poll also projected seven seats for the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism; six for Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu party; five each for the right-wing Yisrael Beytenu and far-left Meretz parties; five for MK Orly Levy-Abekasis' Gesher party, and five for Shas, the Sephardi haredi party.
A different poll conducted and published by Hadashot evening news indicated that Habayit Hayehudi would win four seats, which would barely lift it over the electoral threshold, and the New Right would win six seats. The results of this poll, like Channel 10's, showed the Likud far ahead of the rest of the parties, with a projected 28-seat win.
Hadashot predicted 14 seats for Israel Resilience; 12 each for Yesh Atid and the Joint Arab List; and only nine for the Zionist Union. The poll projected that United Torah Judaism would win seven seats; the Kulanu, Shas, and Meretz parties would each win six; and five seats each for Gesher and Yisrael Beytenu.
The Hadashot poll also found that even if Gantz joined forces with another former IDF chief of staff who has thrown his hat into the political ring, Moshe Ya'alon, Likud would still retain a strong lead. In that scenario, the poll found, the Likud would win 27 seats.
If Gantz and Ya'alon were to run together, the poll found, their party would win 16 seats. Yesh Atid and the Joint Arab list would win 12 seats each, and the rest of the parties would all win fewer than 10 seats each.
The poll projected eight seats for the Zionist Union; seven for United Torah Judaism; six each for Kulanu, Shas, Meretz, and the New Right, and five for Yisrael Beytenu. Gesher was predicted to win five seats and Habayit Hayehudi would be left with only four seats, which would barely put it over the electoral minimum.
A poll by public broadcaster Kan showed more favorable results for the New Right, projecting 14 seats for the new party, making it the third-largest after the Likud, which was projected to win 27 seats, and Yesh Atid, with 16 projected seats.
Neither Habayit Hayehudi nor Yisrael Beytenu passed the minimum electoral threshold in the Kan poll. Israel Resilience was predicted to win 13 seats, meaning it would be the fourth-largest party. The poll also projected 12 seats for the Joint Arab List; nine for the Zionist Union; seven each for United Torah Judaism and Kulanu; six for Meretz; five for Gesher; and only four for Shas.
