Israel’s Likud to vote on merger with Lieberman

Occupied Jerusalem: Israel’s governing Likud Party will be deciding on whether to merge with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s ultranationalist Israel Beiteinu faction.

The union proposed by hardliner Lieberman and right wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to win approval, though some in Likud are opposed to it.

A poll released ahead of the vote on Monday evening shows a merged Likud-Israel Beiteinu party could be far ahead of rivals in January 22 elections.

The TNS/Teleseker poll of 500 people, conducted for the Maariv newspaper and published on Monday, gave the merged party 43 of parliament’s 120 seats. Ultra-Orthodox parties that traditionally align with Likud would win 24, potentially handing Netanyahu a comfortable hard-line majority of 67 seats.

The survey had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.