Shakeup likely if early election held in Israel

Time of Israel reported:

If elections were to be held in Israel today, they would result in a drastic government shakeup, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party would remain at the top of the heap, according to a poll published Monday.

Israeli Channel 10 released the poll results amid reports of a major rift brewing in the governing coalition between Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid over the 2015 budget that could result in Lapid’s Yesh Atid party — and its 19 Knesset seats — bolting the coalition.

According to the survey results, Likud would garner 26 seats, which would be five seats less than it won in 2013 when it ran on a joint ticket with Yisrael Beytenu, but still comfortably ahead of the poll’s predicted biggest gainer – the hawkish Jewish Home, Channel 10 said.

The poll had Economy Minister Naftali Bennett’s party gaining four seats, bringing its total to 16 and making it the second-largest party in the Knesset, followed by Yisrael Beytenu with 14 seats, up three from today, and Labor with 13.

The centrist Yesh Atid would be the biggest loser in new elections, falling from second place to fifth with only eight seats — down 11 seats from its current representation.

Last week, the finance minister threatened to pull out of the coalition if taxes were raised to cover the costs of the 50-day conflict in Gaza over the summer, estimated at $2.5billion. Lapid has been pushing instead to increase the deficit cap to 3.5% of the GDP in the 2015 budget to cover the defense spending.