The final Zman Yisrael election poll ahead of Tuesday’s Knesset elections shows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc tied with the Zionist opposition bloc led by Gadi Eisenkot, with each projected to receive 51 seats, 10 short of the 61-seat majority required to form a government. Netanyahu’s Likud gained one seat compared with the previous survey, while Eisenkot’s Yashar party lost three. The Times of Israel reports.

According to the poll, Eisenkot’s Yashar remains the largest individual party with 23 seats, followed by Netanyahu’s Likud with 21. The survey was released after President Donald Trump publicly endorsed Netanyahu, an endorsement that came between the publication of the previous poll and the latest results.

The two Arab-majority parties, the Joint List and Ra’am, are projected to receive 9 and 5 seats respectively. Although their combined 14 seats would bring the broader anti-Netanyahu camp to 65, Eisenkot and nearly all other Zionist opposition leaders have pledged not to form a coalition with the Arab parties.

Meanwhile, Yoaz Hendel’s Reservists party narrowly crosses the 3.25% electoral threshold, receiving 3.6% of the vote and securing four Knesset seats. Hendel has refused to align his party with either political bloc and has pledged not to join a coalition containing Chareidi or Arab-majority parties.

Former IDF general Ofer Winter’s People of Israel party, which has pledged to support a Netanyahu-led government, fails to cross the electoral threshold, receiving 3% of the vote. Had the party crossed the threshold, its seats would have contributed to Netanyahu’s bloc.

The survey also found that an overwhelming 87% of respondents have already decided which party they intend to support, while just 2.4% remain undecided between parties belonging to opposing political blocs.

More than a quarter of respondents said they had changed their voting preferences during the final months of the campaign. Approximately 19.6% switched between political blocs, while another 6% changed their preferred party within the same bloc.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)