Today’s poll, December 20

We only have one poll this weekend, from Maariv daily newspaper. The results are surprising: even with the Greens not passing the 2% threshold and staying out of the Knesset, the gap between the Right and the Center-Let Block narrows to 2 MKs (61-59).

It appears that while both Kadima and Labor got some sort of a “primaries bounce”, the Likud lost some momentum. It’s hard to tell whether it’s because of the rightist nature of the Likud’s list of candidates for the next Knesset, or just the opposite – because of the way Netanyahu dealt with the Moshe Feiglin problem.

PARTY // MAARIV POLL

Kadima 30
Likud 30
Labor 12
Israel Beitenu 12
Arab Parties 10
Shas 9
Meretz 7
Habait Hayehudi 5
Yahaduth Hatorah 5
Greens – 0
Gil (senior citizens) – 0

Right-Orthodox block (Likud + Shas + Israel Beitenu + Habait Heyehudi + Yahadut Hatorah): 61
Center-Left block: (Kadima + Labor + Arab Parties + Meretz + Green Party): 59

Yossi Verter reports in Haaretz that internal polls both in the Likud and in Kadima parties confirm that the gap between the Likud and Kadima got somewhat smaller.

Two updates on issues we dealt with lately:

“The Green Movement” will run together with the moderate religious party “Meimad”. It seems that the motivation for this odd coupling is financial: Meimad has money for campaigning, The Green Movement doesn’t. And still, I think it’s a mistake. Tying themselves to a dying brand like Meimad will only kill any “freshness” and “cool” feelings associated with The Green Movement, and those were its’ greatest assets. This is good news for Peer Visner and his “Greens” party.

The new right wing united party, Habait Hayehudi, is already falling apart. The Extrem-Right elements (mainly the members of the old “Moledet” party) decided to brake away from “Habait Hayehudi”, which looks more and more like a new version of the old NRP (National Religious Party).