Blue & White party tops Netanyahu in upcoming election: poll

A new i24NEWS/Israel Hayom poll shows the Blue and White political alliance overtaking the ruling Likud party for the first time with less than three weeks until Israel's general election on September 17. 

The survey shows that if Israeli elections were today, Blue and White - led by former IDF chief Benny Gantz - would receive 32 Knesset (Israeli Parliament) seats to the Likud party's 30. 

The poll also makes clear that neither party would be able to form a coalition government without the right-wing secular Yisrael Beiteinu party, led by former defense minister Avigdor Liberman, which is predicted to earn 11 seats in the next Israeli Parliament.

Without Yisrael Beiteinu, Israel's right-wing political bloc would control only 55 seats in the Knesset, six short of the 61 mandates required to form a government coalition. The survey shows the centrist-left wing bloc receiving 54 seats after the next election. 

Asked which of the party leaders was best suited to be prime minister, 40% of respondents said Benjamin Netanyahu with only 24% of the public saying Benny Gantz is qualified to lead the country.  

Israel's political establishment was thrown into chaos following the country's general election in April when Yisrael Beiteinu refused to join a Likud-led coalition government over ultra-Orthodox conscription service in the IDF.  

That led to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling for the Knesset to dissolve itself, forcing another general election in September. 

The new poll also predicts the Arab Joint List winning 11 seats, Yamina (The Right List) earning 10 seats,  along with Shas at 8 and Torah Judaism with 7. The Democratic Camp would enter the Knesset 6 seats and the historic Labor party with just 5 seats.

The poll, conducted by Professor Yitzak Katz of the Mogar Mochot Institute, used a sample size of 507 likely voters in Israel's next election.