New Israeli Poll Shows Netanyahu’s Party Advancing 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference for the international media at the Government Press office in Jerusalem, Sept. 4 2024. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference for the international media at the Government Press office in Jerusalem, Sept. 4 2024. (Reuters)
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New Israeli Poll Shows Netanyahu’s Party Advancing 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference for the international media at the Government Press office in Jerusalem, Sept. 4 2024. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference for the international media at the Government Press office in Jerusalem, Sept. 4 2024. (Reuters)

An opinion poll on Friday showed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party would form the largest single party in parliament if an election were held now, underlining a gradual recovery since the Oct. 7 attacks last year.

The poll, published in the left-wing Ma'ariv daily, showed Likud winning 24 seats, against 32 at present, its highest score in the Ma'ariv poll since Oct. 7. It put the National Unity Party led by centrist former general Benny Gantz on 21.

Netanyahu's right-wing coalition with a clutch of nationalist-religious and ultra-Orthodox parties would lose any election held now, with 53 seats in the 120-seat parliament, against 58 for the main opposition bloc, according to the poll.

But Likud's advance shows how far Netanyahu has moved since last year when his standing was hit by public fury at the security failures when Hamas gunmen stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.

Earlier in the war against Hamas in Gaza, opinion polls regularly showed Likud gaining no more than 16-18 seats in parliament.

The survey also showed Netanyahu's personal standing as prime minister recovering, with respondents favoring him over any alternative potential candidate apart from former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who is now out of politics.

Despite coalition tensions between Netanyahu and several ministers, and regular protests by Israelis demanding a deal to bring home the Gaza hostages, the government has held together for almost two years. An election is not due until 2026.

Netanyahu has clashed with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, from his own party, and two hardliners - National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

While Likud has climbed steadily, support has not followed for the two nationalist religious parties, Jewish Power, led by Ben-Gvir, and Religious Zionism, under Smotrich, giving both parties an incentive not to leave the government.



Helene's Toll Reaches 200 as US Crews Try to Reach Most Remote Areas Hit Storm

A woman walks to her damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Pensacola, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A woman walks to her damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Pensacola, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
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Helene's Toll Reaches 200 as US Crews Try to Reach Most Remote Areas Hit Storm

A woman walks to her damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Pensacola, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A woman walks to her damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Pensacola, N.C. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Hurricane Helene's death toll reached 200 on Thursday and could rise higher still, as searchers made their way toward the hardest to reach places in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Officials in Georgia and North Carolina added to their states' grim tallies, padding an overall count that has already made Helene the deadliest storm to hit the US mainland since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

A week after the storm came ashore in Florida before carving a path of destruction through the Southeast, connections between friends, neighbors and even strangers have provided hope in the worst-affected areas.

Government cargo planes brought food and water to these areas and rescue crews waded through creeks searching for survivors, The Associated Press reported.

Helping one another in remote mountain areas, helicopters hoisted the stranded to safety while search crews moved toppled trees so they could look door to door for survivors. In some places, homes teetered on hillsides and washed-out riverbanks.
Electricity is being slowly restored, as the number of homes and businesses without power dipped below 1 million for the first time since last weekend, according to poweroutage.us. Most of the outages are in the Carolinas and Georgia, where Helene struck after barreling over Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sept. 26 as a Category 4 hurricane. Deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, in addition to the Carolinas.