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Gantz gains ground on Netanyahu in Israel election poll

January 9, 2019 at 1:07 pm

New polling shows that former Israeli army chief Benny Gantz has closed the gap between himself and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reported the Times of Israel.

While the Likud leader continues to lead as Israelis’ preferred candidate for prime minister, the Channel 10 poll “found that when presented with a choice between the two, 41 per cent of the public chose Netanyahu while 38 per cent picked Gantz. Twenty-one per cent were undecided.”

When asked to choose between Netanyahu and Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, “Netanyahu won 45 per cent of the vote while Lapid got 29 per cent, and 26 per cent were undecided”.

The Channel 10 poll also found that 49 per cent of the public “do not believe Netanyahu’s claims that his criminal investigations are being conducted unfairly”, while 33 per cent do believe him and 18 per cent are undecided.

Meanwhile, a separate poll published by the Walla news site “showed that [Netanyahu’s] Likud continues to maintain its significant lead over all other challengers, with 32 seats”.

The poll had Yesh Atid taking second place with 13 seats, followed by the Joint List with 12, Israel Resilience with 12, Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked’s New Right at eight, Labour at eight and United Torah Judaism at seven. Shas, Meretz, Kulanu and Jewish Home each received five.

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