Netanyahu's popularity rises after US speech

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has potentially achieved one more seat in Parliament following his speech in the United States according to a poll conducted by the Israeli television channel Channel 2.

The poll was released on Wednesday, showing the Zionist Union still topping the results with a one-seat lead over Netanyahu’s Likud in the upcoming election.

According to the poll, the Zionist Union is likely to receive 24 seats to Likud’s 23. In previous polls, Likud achieved 22 seats. The Zionist Union’s popularity remained unchanged from 24 seats in a previous poll.

Analysts have suggested that the increase may be attributed to Netanyahu’s live address at the US Congress on Tuesday evening.

According to the poll, the right wing Bayit Yehudi party stood at 12 Knesset seats, tied with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu was polling at eight sears, suggesting that he is losing the fight for centrist voters to Lapid.

Right-wing Yisrael Beytenu party, led by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, was tied with the religious ultra-Orthodox Sephardic party Shas and the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism, with six Knesset seats each.

The left wing Meretz was also polling at six, a one seat rise from the previous poll, which had them just scraping the election threshold.

According to the poll, 15 per cent of voters were still unsure about which party they would vote for. When asked who was better equipped to serve as prime minister, Netanyahu beat Herzog by 47 per cent to 28 per cent.

Some 43 per cent of respondents said they watched Netanyahu’s speech live but that it did not influence their perception of the incumbent prime minister.