Final polls before elections give Herzog 4-point lead

[spanone]

With just four days until election day, the final polls published Friday indicated that the Zionist Union has a comfortable four-seat lead over Likud going into the final stretch. Likud still seems slightly better placed to build a majority coalition in the 120-seat Knesset, the polls showed, but forming a stable majority could be a complex task for either of the two main parties.

Israeli election rules prohibit the publication of voter surveys after the last Friday before elections, making the Channel 2 and Channel 10 polls the last glimpse at the prospective outcome of the national elections before ballots close Tuesday evening.

According to a survey conducted by Channel 2, the Zionist Union held a projected four-point lead over Likud, with 26 seats to 22. The Joint (Arab) List came in third place with 13 seats, followed by Yesh Atid with 12 and Jewish Home with 11.

Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu party took eight seats, Shas seven, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism list with six, and Yisrael Beytenu, Meretz and Yahad with five apiece.



Read more: Final polls before elections give Herzog 4-point lead | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/final-polls-before-elections-give-herzog-4-point-lead/#ixzz3UIU8JIdF

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. This is the best thing for Isreal, for the U S, and for U S-Israeli relations

I don't follow Israeli domestic politics that closely but maintaining good relations with the U S and bipartisan support is always a criterion for electing a Prime Minister.

[LittleBlue]

2. Interesting to see if this plays out

If Zionist Union is bold enough to make a coalition with the Joint List. Most have written off the possibility because working with Arabs us akin to treason in Israel, but it might be Herzog and Livni's only realistic path to power

[KamaAina]

3. It could come down to Yesh Atid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesh_Atid

Yesh Atid (Hebrew: יֵשׁ עָתִיד, lit. There is a Future) is a political party founded by former journalist Yair Lapid in 2012 that seeks to represent what it considers the center of Israeli society: the secular middle class. It focuses primarily on civic, socioeconomic, and governance issues, including tackling economic inequality and ending military draft exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox. In 2013, Yesh Atid placed second in the general election, winning 19 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, far more than polls had predicted it would win. On 15 March 2013, the party signed a coalition agreement with the ruling Likud party to join the Israeli government.

Wonder what they'd ask of Likud to keep them from jumping ship. Most of the other smaller parties, save for Meretz, are right-wing.