A Channel 13 News poll conducted by Prof. Camil Fuchs and published on Monday finds that Mansour Abbas' Ra’am party would not pass the electoral threshold if elections were to be held today. In contrast, after several consecutive polls in which it failed to pass the electoral threshold, Gideon Saar's New Hope passes it and wins four seats. The Likud and Benjamin Netanyahu continue to lead the way with 36 seats. Yesh Atid is the second largest party with 18 seats. Another surprise is in the form of Bezalel Smotrich and the Religious Zionism Party, which wins nine seats and is the third largest party in the poll. The ruling Yamina Party, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, wins eight seats, followed by Blue and White, Shas and United Torah Judaism with 7 seats each. The predominantly Arab Joint List Party wins eight seats, the Labor Party has six seats, and Yisrael Beytenu and Meretz each win five seats. In terms of blocs, the parties that make up the current coalition have 53 seats compared to 59 seats for the opposition parties in the current Knesset. The Joint List with its eight seats is in the middle. On the question of suitability for Prime Minister, the majority continues to vote for Benjamin Netanyahu as the most suitable candidate for Prime Minister and he receives 46 percent support in the poll. He is followed by Yair Lapid with 15 percent, and Bennett with only 9 percent, the same number as Defense Minister Benny Gantz. On the question of whether the public thinks the government is handling the wave of terrorism well or not, the answer was clear. 66 percent think the government is not handling the wave of terrorism well, compared to only 24 percent who thought it is being handled well. Participants in the poll were asked whether or not Ra’am’s membership in the coalition affects the government's security policy and if so in which direction? Half of the respondents answered that the presence of Ra’am in the coalition adversely affects security policy, compared with only 8 percent who answered that it has a positive effect. 27 percent think that it does not affect security policy. Related articles: Poll shows National Unity losing support Poll: Likud, National Unity, tied for top spot Most of the public opposes deal with Hamas Liberman at all-time high, Bennett supported more than Netanyahu
