JERUSALEM: A pair of polls published Thursday showed opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline Likud party leading Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's moderate Kadima party in the run-up to Israel's Feb. 10 elections.
The polls also indicated strong support for Netanyahu's hard-line allies. If that support stands through the elections, it would position Netanyahu to put together a hawkish coalition that would likely end peace talks with the Palestinians, at least in their current form.
A poll published in the Haaretz daily on Thursday showed Likud garnering 34 seats in the 120-seat parliament, up from its current 12, followed by Kadima with 28. Kadima, the ruling party, currently has 29 seats.
The poll forecast the once-dominant Labor, headed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, winning just 10 seats. The poll, conducted by the Dialog agency, surveyed 488 people and had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.
A poll in the Yediot Ahronot daily had similar results, forecasting 32 seats for Likud, compared with Kadima's 26. It said Labor would receive just eight seats, making it just the fifth-largest party. The Dahaf Research Institute poll of 500 people had a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points.
