Netanyahu’s list losing steam before elections

JERUSALEM - Agence France-Presse

Israeli PM Netanyahu (R) drinks a beer with Israeli students in Beersheba. Just weeks before elections, PM’s joint list is losing support, polls say. EPA photo

Just three weeks before snap elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s joint list is losing support and the premier could find himself constrained when it comes to forming the next government.

Netanyahu can still count on returning to the prime minister’s office, with the joint list of his Likud faction and the ultranationalist Israel Beitenu party retaining a lead in the polls ahead of the Jan. 22 vote.

But the list, announced last October, has seen that lead gradually eaten away, with the national religious Jewish Home faction in particular chipping away at its constituency. A poll published by the Haaretz daily yesterday showed the Likud-Beitenu list expected to win 34 of the Knesset’s 120 seats and a loss of nine projected seats since the list was first announced.