Rehovot - Israel's Ohio - Votes Likud Beitenu with 35 Seats

If you're a commentator, a political junkie or an analyzer looking to predict the outcome of the Jan. 22nd Knesset Election, seeking for the Ohio of Israel - "the predictor state" - look no further than the city of Rehovot.

Over the past three elections cycles, the city where the results most resembled the national outcome was Rehovot. The combination of poor neighborhoods, immigrant areas, the elite of the city's Weizmann Institute of Science, ultra-Orthodox community and new bourgeois neighborhoods paint a reliable portrait of Israeli society.

51% of Rehovot's residents are women and 49% men. A  Quarter of the population, about 31 thousand people are new immigrants, the majority from the former Soviet Union and a tenth of them came from Ethiopia, and about a third of the population are college graduates.

The results in Rehovot resembled on the dot the nationwide results in 2003 and 2006, and came close in 2009, in which Likud received 4.3 percent more votes in Rehovot than nationwide.

Rahamim Malul, the mayor of Rehovot told channel 2 that , says that the texture of the city of Rehovot makes it the 'Ohio' of Israel."

As a tradition, Channel 2, held mock elections in Rehovot this week, with a follow up poll sample by Dahaf Institute, one that could serve as a predictor reflecting the results of the Knesset elections for the country as a whole.

According to the results of the Dahaf Institute poll sample of Rehovot, Likud Beitenu won the first place with 35 seats, Labor 17, Bayit Yehudi 15, Yesh Atid 13, Hatnu'a 9, Shas 9, Meretz 3, UTJ 3, Strong Israel 3, and Kadima 2 seats. (Arab Parties were not polled but were included in the sample as a bloc of 11 seats).