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Normalisation hasn’t stopped fall in Netanyahu’s popularity

October 20, 2020 at 10:30 am

Israelis gather to protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding his resignation over corruption cases and his failure to combat the coronavirus pandemic in Tel Aviv on 3 October 2020 [Mostafa Alkharouf / Anadolu Agency]

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be marketing normalisation deals with Arab states as “great achievements”, but polls continue to show a sharp decline in his popularity among Israelis, Arab48.com reported on Monday. Even after signing a deal with Bahrain, tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv calling for the Israeli leader to resign.

Moreover, last week Israeli television station i24 reported a poll reflecting a massive fall in support for Netanyahu’s Likud party. According to the poll, if the elections took place today, Likud, which currently has 36 seats in the Knesset, would only win 27, while right-wingers led by Naftali Bennett MK would win 24.

Israeli TV Channel 12 also reported a poll it conducted on the same issue which found that Likud would get 27 seats and Bennett’s bloc would get 22. Such polls would make the Yamina far-right alliance the second largest Israeli political group after Likud.

Opposition to Netanyahu, local media reported, has been increasing in the light of the corruption cases that he still faces, as well as his failure to cope with the Covid-19 crisis.

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