New Poll Shows Surge in Israel’s Religious Far-Right

Jewish Home Surges, Vying for Second Place With Labor

Though in some ways the poll is already obsolete because the data comes before Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was indicted and resigned, new polls shows a shift in voter sentiment toward the religious far-right.

Likud-Beiteinu’s plurality remains virtually assured, but continues to shrink, with recent 40 seat projections falling to 35 in both polls. The seats don’t seem to be going to the center-left either, with the far-right secular list losing a number of seats to the religious far-right.

Labor remains a consensus number two, but the Jewish Home bloc is surging into a close third, with one poll showing them only a single seat behind Labor, going from a three seat also-ran to a 17 seat potential king-maker.

It also puts Jewish Home ahead of the traditional religious right party, Shas, which is polling at 10-11 seats. Between those two and the UTJ, the religious right, far-right is looking to collect significant seats over their 2009 showing, making Lieberman’s calls to cut them out of the coalition seemingly impossible.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.