The tide has turned back toward Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as two new polls show his Likud party taking back the lead from leading opponent Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party.
According to Israel National News, “A Channel 12 poll conducted by a sample institute and published this evening (Sunday) shows the Likud leading the Blue and White Party for the first time since a third round of Knesset elections was announced. If elections were to be held today, Netanyahu’s party would come in with 34 seats while Blue and White would receive 33 seats, the Joint Arab list 13, and the Labor -Gesher-Meretz would come in with ten. Shas and United Torah Jewry would each receive eight seats, Yamina would end up with seven, and Lieberman’s Yisrael Beytenu seven seats.”
A Kan News poll found that Likud would gain 35 seats, the Blue and White Party 34, the Joint List 14, Labor-Gesher-Meretz nine, Shas 8 seats, while UTJ and Yisrael Beytenu would each collect seven.
The Times of Israel noted, “It shows that despite Likud’s slight bump, the pro-Benjamin Netanyahu coalition of Likud, Yamina and Haredi factions Shas and UTJ still garner just 57 seats, four short of a 61-seat parliamentary majority needed for an outright victory by the right. Blue and White’s allies also do not have a majority, with its most likely coalition partners of Labor-Gesher-Meretz and Yisrael Beytenu bringing it to just 50 seats.
Channel 12 asked respondents whom they preferred as prime minister; Netanyahu led Gantz 43% to 33%.
On Monday, The Jerusalem Post reported that Netanyahu stated that the US-Israeli mapping process to mark territory in Judea and Samaria for the application of Israeli sovereignty has begun. Speaking in Ariel, the fourth largest settlement in Judea and Samaria, Netanyahu said:
The joint mapping process of the Israeli team and the American team is underway here in Ariel. This is a major mission. The area has an 800-km. perimeter. There is serious work, but we will work as quickly as possible to get it done. There is no artificial impediment. For the mapping process, one must consider every valley, every section, every nook and every line. This is serious. We are determining here lines that have historic implications.
The Post continued that the mapping process would “allow for the application of Israeli law [sovereignty] on these areas and later American recognition as well,” according to Netanyahu, who added that after the work is done, “sovereignty can happen immediately.”
The Post noted, “Under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, Israel can annex 30% of Area C of the West Bank, including all the settlements, once the mapping process is completed.”
Ariel Mayor Eli Shaviro asserted, “The sovereignty ship is under way. As I have said in the past, I believe that the prime minister will advance the ‘Deal of the Century’ with President Trump and US officials. I believe that the application of Israeli law in the Jordan Valley and in the communities of Judea and Samaria is closer than ever.”