'Israel' election polls project Netanyahu loss

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Former Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be just shy of acquiring a majority in the Knesset in next week's election, polls on Friday predicted.

The occupation's opposition leader would come within a single seat of having a majority in the upcoming election, which is the fifth in less than four years.

Netanyahu is on trial for corruption charges that he is denying and that jeopardized his political career. He has seen some sort of a comeback due to his party's, Likud, alliance with the far-right Religious Zionism party.

The Israeli KAN public broadcaster published a poll on Thursday, and the Maariv newspaper published another on Friday, both of which saw the alliance's bloc only garnering 60 out of 120 of the Knesset's seats.

According to the polls, the bloc going against Netanyahu will win 56 seats, and the Hadash-Ta'al list, which said it will not be taking part in any coalition, getting four seats.

If the election process does not give either side a majority, a deadlock would dominate the political scene within the occupation's regime while assigning incumbent Prime Minister Yair Lapid with the task of managing "Israel's" affairs as caretaker Prime Minister.

A similar deadlock saw Netanyahu ousted from office back in 2021 after four votes that did not deliver on a parliamentary majority, resulting in former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid's coalition taking over the Knesset.

In a final swing at the premiership, Netanyahu allied with ultranationalist and outright terrorist MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, infamous for his raiding of Palestinian towns and Islamic sanctities in occupied Palestine, such as Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The former PM's alliance could lead to sensitivities with the Israeli occupation's Western and Arab allies.

Netanyahu's opponents, on the other hand, are highly concerned over his prospected victory in the election, pledging to throw in everything they have to keep him out, fearing that a win from the Likud leader would see him tailoring the Israeli legal system to avert him a conviction over his corruption.

Netanyahu in late August called for unity among the ranks of far-right Israeli parties, namely extremist Zionist Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit party and Betzalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party, Israeli media reported at the time.

Smotrich welcomed the call for uniting of far-right Zionist parties. However, Ben-Gvir was not too fond of the statement, as he accused his former political partner, Smotrich, of slowing him down due to his delayed actions. In the meantime, it seems that Ben-Gvir is on board.

Both the extremist Zionists ran together in the 2021 election, and it seemed that their political partnership was over, as their negotiations to submit a joint electoral list in the upcoming November election fell apart. Ben-Gvir has accused Smotrich of "negotiating in bad faith" and not compromising or making any concessions.

With his MKs believing that he is driven by a personal vendetta, Netanyahu has been concerned that Yamina would be able to secure a sizeable number of chairs in the Knesset via a coalition.

In order to lead the Israeli government, a party has to win a majority of 61 seats in the Knesset. If this was not achieved, the party with the most seats has to negotiate alliances with other parties to form a coalition.

Netanyahu has pledged that his alliance of right-wingers, ultra-nationalists, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties will win the upcoming vote, but polls show that he may also struggle to rally a parliamentary majority.

The Likud leader's efforts to import ultra-nationalists and far-right-wingers into Knesset have been met with criticism, even from Netanyahu's closest allies. Even the pro-Israeli occupation lobby in the US, AIPAC, which practically never criticizes Israeli politicians, has criticized Netanyahu over his actions.