A new poll that aired on Channel 12 News on Tuesday projected a very close race between Yamina and Likud, giving the later a mere three-sear lead.
Were elections held at this time, the survey found, Likud would win 26 Knesset seats and Naftali Bennett's Yamina party would secure 23 mandates.
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Yamina has been growing steadily stronger in the polls, and it seems the national-religious faction comprising the New Right and National Union parties will pose a significant challenge for Likud.
The survey, conducted by the Midgam polling institute projected that Yesh Atid would win 18 seats, followed by the Joint Arab List (15), Blue and White (9), ultra-Orthodox Sephardi party Shas (9), Yisrael Beytenu (8), Ashkenazi Haredi party United Torah Judaism (7), and Meretz, with five seats.
As previous polls have shown, the Labor, Gesher, Habayit Hayehudi, Derech Eretz, and the far-Right Otzma Yehudit parties are not expected to pass the prerequisite four-Knesset-seat electoral threshold.
The poll shows that the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox bloc continues will grow slightly stronger, winning 65 seats, while the left-wing and Arab bloc, together with the Yisrael Beytenu, would have win only 55 seats.
As for recent assessments by political pundits hedging that popular Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai will form a centrist political party that would vie in the next general elections – potentially teaming with former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot – respondents gave this hypothetical party a respectable six Knesset seats.
This outcome had no bearing on the right-wing bloc, but did affect Yesh Atid, Blue and White and Meretz.
The poll also found that only 30% of the public support the national unity government, 49% would like to see early elections called and 21% said they had no opinion on the matter.
As for the government's handling of the coronavirus crisis, only 31% of the public believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is handling the situation properly, while 65% believe he has been mishandling it.
At 30%, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein's approval ratings were also low, as over 52% of the public believe he is mishandling the pandemic.
Coronavirus commissioner Professor Ronni Gamzu, meanwhile, enjoys public support: 57% of respondents said they had confidence in his policies while 33% said they did not.
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