Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ratings have been plunging in recent months, especially over the farcical handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his poor performance in managing the crisis. Within weeks, Netanyahu’s Likud lost the equivalent of 10-13 Knesset seats (out of 120) in the polls, but his alignment of right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties still commands at least 60 seats.
The bloc is holding steady because rather than migrating to the political center-left, disenchanted Netanyahu voters are moving to the right, to Naftali Bennett's Yamina party, which is soaring in the polls. Opposition head Yair Lapid, chair of the centrist Yesh Atid party, who should have been sweeping up Netanyahu and Likud leavers, is hardly benefitting from the shift. His party is stuck in the polls at 19 seats, the record it obtained in the 2013 elections when Lapid first ran, and has been unable to break through this glass ceiling.
