YESH ATID chairman Yair Lapid is on a mission to transform Israel’s entire political culture, aiming to pull it back to the Center.. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Yesh Atid would rise to 27 seats from its current 11, surpassing the Likud with 22 instead of the 30 it has now, if an election were held today, according to a Ma’ariv poll released Friday.
The spike in votes for MK Yair Lapid’s party can likely be credited to matters of religion and state driving the agenda in recent weeks, with the Minimarkets Law, which passed this week, limiting new businesses from opening on Saturdays.
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Shas, which was behind the Minimarkets Law, only got 4 seats, down from 7, just barely passing the electoral threshold.
Zionist Union dropped from 24 to 14, followed by Bayit Yehudi with 13, up from 18, the Joint List, down from 13 to 11, and Kulanu with 9 instead of its current 10.
United Torah Judaism got 8 seats, Meretz 7, and Yisrael Beytenu 5.
The majority of the public- 62% - oppose the Minimarkets Law, and only 20% support it.
Among secular people, 87% oppose and 6% support the Minimarket Law, and 64% of people who call themselves traditional oppose it, while 21% are in favor. Over a quarter of (27%) of religious-Zionists are against the new law, while 46% are in favor, and 12% of haredim (ultra-Orthodox) are against it while 65% support it.
The poll also asked about the three-year-old recording of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, Yair Netanyahu, that was broadcast on Channel 2 News this week, in which he bragging about a visit to a strip club and the benefits of the government’s natural gas plan to his friend, the son of gas tycoon Kobi Maimon.
Asked whether it was appropriate to broadcast, 44% said no and 40% yes.
Among right-wing voters 58% said it shouldn’t it have been aired, but only 32% of center-left voters agreed.
Asked what they thought was the worst part of the Netanyahu tape, 28% thought it was use of his government provided driver and bodyguard for his night on the town, 24% thought its as that he objectified women, 16% said the connection to the gas plan and 10% said visiting a strip club was the worst.
A clear majority of the respondents, 62%, said the public should not fund security for prime minister’s children, which includes a car and driver. Among Likud voters, most (52%) supported the personal security, while in the general public only 24% did.
The poll was conducted online by Panels Politics on Wednesday among 572 respondents, and has a 4.3% margin of error.