Were elections held at this time the Right and Left blocs would again tie, a poll commissioned by Israel Hayom and conducted by the Maagar Mochot polling institute has found.
All parties vying in the Sept. 17 elections presented their slates to the Central Election Committee on Thursday. Among them were at least 27 lists whose chances of passing the 3.25% electoral threshold – roughly four Knesset seats – were slim.
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Thursday's survey showed that the various mergers on both sides of the political spectrum may again create a dead heat between the Right and Center-Left blocs, as each would be able to secure 55 mandates. This would give Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman, whose party is projected to win 10 mandates, the power to decide the fate of the next government.
The poll projected that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party would win 30 Knesset seats, and gave Blue and White 28 seats. The Joint Arab List was projected to win 12 Knesset seats, followed by the New Right (11), Yisrael Beytenu (10), the Democratic Union (9), religious parties United Torah Judaism and Shas (7 seats each), and Labor (6).
Moshe Feiglin's Zehut party and the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, both of which rejected merger offers from the United Right – itself a faction comprising the New Right, Habayit Hayehudi and National Union parties – are not expected to pass the electoral threshold.
Had Otzma Yehudit merged with United Right, the party could win 13 seats, bringing the right-wing bloc's tally to 56.
Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir accused New Right co-founder Naftali Bennett of torpedoing the merger, saying he was in cahoots with Blue and White's No. 2 man, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid.
Bennett and Lapid formed a political alliance during the 2013 elections, which has sense been dissolved.
"I care about ideology, not 'seatology,'" Ben-Gvir stated, blasting the New Right for repeatedly forcing him to compromise for lower positions on its Knesset list.
After informing the Central Elections Committee that Otzma Yehudit will be vying in the election independently, Ben-Gvir said, "We presented a solid, ego- and arrogance-free, list. We will salvage right-wing votes and we will prevent Bennett and Lapid from forming another alliance."
National Union head Bezalel Smotrich, No. 3 on the United Right's list, lambasted Ben-Gvir, saying that as the latter was displeased with the offer and decided against a merger with United Right, he was "spewing lies to take votes from the Right."
Smotrich further warned that Ben-Gvir's "whining" may "install a left-wing government."
New Right leader Ayelet Shaked issued a statement saying, "We spared no effort over the past few days to save as many right-wing votes as possible ahead of the upcoming elections.
"Right-wing voters have to understand - voting for the United Right is the only way to ensure the establishment of a national government. If we're not big enough, the Left will form the government. It's either us and Netanyahu or the Left."
The Likud also lamented the failed merger negotiations between the United Right and Otzma Yehudit.
"The divisions within the Right will result in many lost votes and will see the rise of the leftist government headed by Lapid and [Blue and White leader Benny] Gantz. You have to vote for Likud because that is the only way to sustain a right-wing government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu," the ruling party said in a statement.
Thursday's poll also examined the issue of which candidate was best suited to be the prime minister: some 40% of respondents opted for Netanyahu, 28% preferred Gantz, and only 8% supported former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, head of the Israel Democratic Party and No. 10 on the Democratic Union's slate.
Moreover, 54% of those polled said they did not want Barak to become a Knesset member again and only 22% supported his bid for re-election.
Meanwhile, Joint Arab List Chairman Ayman Odeh said on Thursday that he would "seriously consider" an offer to join a Gantz-led government, but said that he does not believe it to be a realistic prospect over Gantz's own reservations.
Speaking with the Times of Israel Odeh said, "I don't think that Gantz is ready. He would prefer to form a national unity government [with Likud] over what we want. But if he turns to us and he is going in the right direction of peace and equality, we will listen. I don't see it happening because of a lot of bad water under the bridge. We are not in his pocket. He will have to come to us."
Nevertheless, his spokesman later clarified that Odeh had merely been referring to unspecified "cooperation with Blue and White," and not potential coalition negotiations.
