Poll: Political Stalemate Continues in Israel

A public opinion poll in Israel showed that the bloc supporting the current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, would obtain 52 seats out of 120 seats in the Knesset, while the opposition would obtain 58 seats, if elections were held at the present time.

This distribution of seats indicates the difficulty of forming a government by either party, as obtaining the confidence of at least 61 deputies is required to form a ruling coalition, which may lead to a state of political stalemate, according to the newspaper "Maariv".

The newspaper reported that the poll was conducted by the private "Lazar" Institute, and included a random sample of 500 Israelis, with a margin of error of 4.4 percent.

The newspaper explained that if elections were held today, the bloc supporting Netanyahu would obtain 52 seats out of 120 seats in the Knesset, while the Jewish opposition parties would obtain 58 seats.

As for the Arab deputies, they are expected to obtain 10 seats in the Knesset.

It is worth noting that the Jewish opposition parties have announced that they will not ally with the Arab parties to form a government.

As a reminder, forming a government requires obtaining the confidence of at least 61 deputies.

If early elections are not held, general elections are scheduled for October 2026.

The newspaper stated that "for the first time since October 7, 2023, the (Likud) party, led by Netanyahu, has reached the number of seats it had obtained before the war, which is 28 seats".

In a related context, Israel, led by Netanyahu, has been waging an intensive military campaign on the Gaza Strip since October 8, 2023, which has resulted in the martyrdom and injury of tens of thousands of Palestinians, most of whom are children and women.

According to the poll results, the "Religious Zionism" party, headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, may not be able to exceed the electoral threshold in the elections if they are held today.

On the other hand, the poll showed that 57 percent of the Israelis participating in it are optimistic about the future of the State of Israel, while 34 percent of them expressed pessimism, and 9 percent of them did not specify their position.