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Ayelet Shaked a possible kingmaker — if Yamina crosses electoral threshold

According to the latest poll, if Shaked joined Netanyahu, his bloc would secure enough seats to form a government.

By World Israel News Staff

The new leader of Yamina, Ayelet Shaked, is hoping to position her party as election kingmaker for both the both the pro- and anti-Netanyahu blocs, but the latest polls show the party once ruled by Naftali Bennett will barely scrape past the electoral threshold with only 4 seats.

According to a poll published by the Kan public broadcaster on Sunday, if elections were held today, the anti-Netanyahu bloc would only gain 55 seats while the pro-Netanyahu bloc would earn 59. Shaked, should she choose to align with the pro-Netanyahu camp, would bring up that number to 63 – a clear majority needed to form a government.

It is still not clear which of the remaining Yamina lawmakers will stick with the party. According to most Israeli media reports, party members Abir Kara and Shirly Pinto are expected to stay on the slate, while Deputy Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana is likely to switch allegiances to either the Blue and White or New Hope parties.

According to the Kan poll, were elections held today, the Likud Party would win 34 seats and the Yesh Atid party led by Prime Minister Yair Lapid would win 21. The Religious Zionist Party would win 10 seats, followed by Blue and White and Shas with eight seats apiece.

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An earlier poll published on Wednesday by Channel 12 showed Yamina gaining 5 seats.

The final tally of that poll, conducted by Midgam, were as follows: Likud: 34 seats; Yesh Atid: 20; Blue and White: 9; Religious Zionism: 9; Shas: 8; United Torah Judaism: 7; Joint List: 6; Labor: 5; Yisrael Beytenu: 5; Yamina (led by Shaked): 5; Ra’am: 4; Meretz: 4, and New Hope: 4.

In that case, too, a Shaked-Netanyahu alliance would see the Netanyahu-led bloc getting 63 of the Knesset’s 120 seats.

Israelis head to the polls on November 1 for the fifth election in three years.