Poll: Netanyahu coalition suffers blow in election anniv

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not be able to form a government with the parties in his current coalition if an election were held now, a poll broadcast on Channel 2 Saturday night found.

The poll was taken in honor of Sunday’s anniversary of the 2015 election on the Hebrew calendar.

The parties in Netanyahu’s 61-seat coalition would win only 57 mandates, it found.

Netanyahu’s Likud party fell to 26 seats from its current 30, with many of the votes shifting rightward to Bayit Yehudi, which was predicted to rise from eight seats to 11.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu fell, according to the poll, from 10 seats to seven.

Shas fell to six from its current seven, while United Torah Judaism rose one seat from seven to eight.