Israel: Likud Increases Lead Over Kadima

Prospective results of a Knesset election
(Results presented in seats)

	Jan. 18	Jan. 13	Jan. 6
Likud (Consolidation)	31	28	32
Kadima (Forward)	23	26	25
Labour	15	16	17
Israel Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu)	13	14	10
International Organization of Torah-observant Sephardic Jews (Shas)	12	10	10
Vitality-Together (Meretz-Yachad)	6	6	6
Yahadut Hatorah (United Torah Judaism)	5	5	5
Jewish Home (Habayit Hayehudi)	3	3	4
National Union (HaIhud HaLeumi)	1	2	2
Green Party (Yerukim)	1	--	--
Retired People’s Party (Gil)	1	--	--

Source: Maagar Mochot / Channel 2
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 512 Israeli adults, conducted on Jan. 18, 2008. Margin of error is 4.5 per cent.

Israel: Likud Leads Kadima, Labour Gains Momentum

Prospective results of a Knesset election
(Results presented in seats)

	Dec. 31	Nov. 18
Likud (Consolidation)	32	34
Kadima (Forward)	27	28
Labour	16	10
Israel Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu)	11	10
International Organization of Torah-observant Sephardic Jews (Shas)	9	10
Vitality-Together (Meretz-Yachad)	7	7
Yahadut Hatorah (United Torah Judaism)	5	6
Jewish Home (National Union and NRP)	3	4
Arab parties	10	11

Source: Dialog / Haaretz
Methodology: Interviews with 472 Israeli adults, conducted on Dec. 31, 2008. Margin of error is 5 per cent.

Israel: Likud Leads Kadima, Shas 3rd

Prospective results of a Knesset election
(Results presented in seats)

	Dec. 2008	Nov. 2008	Oct. 2008
Likud (Consolidation)	31	32	26
Kadima (Forward)	24	26	29
International Organization of Torah-observant Sephardic Jews (Shas)	11	11	11
Labour	11	8	11
Israel Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu)	10	9	9
Vitality-Together (Meretz-Yachad)	7	7	6
Yahadut Hatorah (United Torah Judaism)	7	7	7
Jewish Home (National Union and NRP)	6	6	7
Green Party (Yerukim)	3	3	2
Gil (Retired People’s Party)	--	--	2
Arab parties	10	11	10

Source: Dahaf Institute / Yediot Ahronot
Methodology: Interviews with 503 Israeli adults, conducted on Dec. 9, 2008. Margin of error is 4.5 per cent.

Israel: Likud, Kadima Continue to Lead the Field

Prospective results of a Knesset election
(Results presented in seats)

	Nov. 2008	Oct. 2008
Likud (Consolidation)	32	26
Kadima (Forward)	26	29
International Organization of Torah-observant Sephardic Jews (Shas)	11	11
Israel Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu)	9	9
Labour	8	11
Vitality-Together (Meretz-Yachad)	7	6
Yahadut Hatorah (United Torah Judaism)	7	7
Jewish Home (National Union and NRP)	6	7
Green Party (Yerukim)	3	2
Gil (Retired People’s Party)	--	2
Arab parties	11	10

Source: Dahaf Institute / Yediot Ahronot
Methodology: Interviews with 500 Israeli adults, conducted on Nov. 19, 2008. Margin of error is 4.5 per cent.

Israel: Likud Leads, Labour Plummets to Tie With Shas

Prospective results of a Knesset election
(Results presented in seats)

Likud (Consolidation)	34
Kadima (Forward)	28
Labour	10
International Organization of Torah-observant Sephardic Jews (Shas)	10
Israel Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu)	10
Vitality-Together (Meretz-Yachad)	7
Yahadut Hatorah (United Torah Judaism)	6
Jewish Home (National Union and NRP)	4
Arab parties	11

Source: Dialog / Haaretz
Methodology: Interviews with 488 Israeli adults, conducted on Nov. 18, 2008. Margin of error is 5 per cent.

Israel: Early Election Likely

Good news from our only real ally in the Middle East:

Israel's ultra-Orthodox Shas party refused to join a coalition government Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is seeking to assemble, increasing the chance of a general election in early 2009.

``It has been decided not to join the government,'' Roi Lachmanovich, a spokesman for Shas leader Eli Yishai, said in a telephone interview today. ``The decision is final.''

The rebuff came after Livni late yesterday said she'll announce on Oct. 26 whether she expects to form a government and take over as prime minister or ask President Shimon Peres to call early elections. Shas's 12 seats in the 120-person parliament could give her the support she needs for a majority.

More at Bloomberg

Israel: Likud Still Far Ahead

Prospective results of a Knesset election
(Results presented in seats)

Likud (Consolidation)	32
Labour	16
Kadima (Forward)	15
International Organization of Torah-observant Sephardic Jews (Shas)	12
Israel Our Home (Yisrael Beiteinu)	10
National Union (Ikhud) and Mafdal (National Religious Party)	10
Yahadut Hatorah (United Torah Judaism)	6
Together (Yachad)	5
Gil (Retired People’s Party)	4
Arab parties	10

Source: Maagar Mochot / Channel 10
Methodology: Interviews with 520 Israeli adults, conducted on Mar. 26, 2007. Margin of error is 4.5 per cent.