Poll: Likud, Blue & White up - Yisrael Beytenu down

New poll shows Left and Right nearly tied, with Jewish Home failing to enter next Knesset as Likud and Blue & White gain strength.

Blue and White and the Likud would both gain seats if new elections were held today, a new poll shows.

According to a survey conducted by Kantar and released by Kan Monday morning, if new elections were held today, Blue and White and the Likud would each gain two seats, rising from 33 for the center-left Blue and White to 35, while the Likud would rise from 32 to 34 seats.

The left-wing and right-wing blocs would also remain largely unchanged, with the left-Arab bloc holding steady at 57 seats, while the right-wing – religious bloc would rise from its current 55 seats to 56 seats. The secular rightist Yisrael Beytenu, which broke away from the right-wing bloc to demand a national unity government, would receive seven seats, down from its current eight.

The two haredi parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, would receive eight seats each, a gain of one for UTJ, which currently has seven, and a loss of one for Shas, which won nine in the September election.

The New Right party of Defense Minister Naftali Bennett would double its current strength of three seats, winning six, while the Jewish Home – National Union would fail to cross the electoral threshold, leaving it out of the next Knesset. In September, the Jewish Home, National Union, and New Right ran jointly on the Yamina list, winning seven seats – three of which went to the New Right, with the other four divided evenly between the National Union and the Jewish Home.

On the Left, Labor-Gesher and the Democratic Union would each fall by one seat, down to five and four seats respectively.

The Joint Arab List would remain stable at 13 seats.

Voters remain nearly evenly divided on who they prefer as prime minister, with 41% favoring incumbent premier Binyamin Netanyahu, compared to 38% who prefer challenger Benny Gantz of Blue and White.

The poll was conducted Sunday by Kantar, and included responses from 556 participants.