Free Republic

According to the near final results of the votes of soldiers, diplomats, and prisoners that were being tallied Thursday morning, Jewish Home will be awarded a 12th Knesset seat, making it the fourth largest faction in the Israeli parliament. The seat will come at the expense of Arab party Ra'am-Ta'al, which goes down to four seats. With the twelfth seat, Bayit Yehudi, the representative party of the National Religious sector, matches the sector's historic record number of Knesset seats, achieved in 1977, when the National Religious Party received 12 Knesset seats.

Once soldiers’ votes are counted and the distribution of Knesset seats recalculated, the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party may be back up to 12 seats. The extra seat would likely come at the expense of Ra’am Ta’al, which currently stands at five seats, up from its current three. Party head Ahmed Tibi expressed hope Wednesday morning that soldiers’ votes would not hurt the party’s new standing.

The hareidi-religious Yahadut Hatorah (Gimmel) party won a plurality in the elections in the city of Jerusalem. The party won 22.34% of the vote. Likud Beytenu was in second place with 20.51%, Shas was third with 15.73%, Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) was fourth with 11.77%, and Yesh Atid was fifth with 6.86%.

A Maagar Mochot Institute poll released this morning shows a close race between Sheli Yechimovich's Labor party and the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party headed by Naftali Bennett for the second largest party in the Knesset. According to the poll, Likud-Beytenu party gets 37 seats, Labor is down to 15 and Bayit Yehudi gets 14 seats.

Most Israelis define themselves as “right wing,” according to a new survey from the Israeli Democracy Institute. Another 21% self-define as centrist, and 17% term themselves leftists. Regarding voting, 50% said they plan to vote for right-wing parties, both religious and secular. Thirty percent said they plan to vote for centrist or left-wing parties. The rest were undecided.