The nationalist Likud party of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is increasingly its popularity, almost one year after it returned to power in February 2009 elections, a poll published Friday showed.
If new elections were held today, the Likud would emerge even stronger than it did in last year's vote and become the biggest party in the Knesset, winning 35 seats, the survey said, DPA reported.
That is eight more than the 27 mandates it currently has in the 120-seat Israeli parliament, and 23 more than it obtained in 2006.
Netanyahu's personal popularity, however, is somewhat down, said the survey by the Dialog Institute, commissioned by Haaretz.
While 50 per cent of Israelis were "satisfied" with his performance three months ago, 42 replied they are satisfied today.
The daily attributed the drop to his decision to partially freeze construction in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which alienated some of his right-wing voters, and to a highly publicized lawsuit filed against his unpopular wife by a former maid.
A slim majority of Israelis (53 per cent) are unhappy with their foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman of the far-right Israeli Beiteinu coalition party.
Lieberman sparked outrage among other Israeli lawmakers Thursday by threatening that Israel would topple Syria's regime if it were to attack.
According to Haaretz, the poll results mean that Netanyahu, who served a first term as premier between 1996 to 1999, has managed to rebuild the Likud after it was shattered by former premier Ariel Sharon, who split it to form the centrist Kadima party.
The former ruling and present opposition party would obtain 26 mandates if elections were held today, down from Kadima's current 28, said the poll, while the leftist coalition Labour Party would lose more mandates. It would get some nine seats, instead of its current 13, according to the poll. Lieberman's Israel Beiteinu would stay largely the same size and still be the third largest party.
Analysts attribute the rise of the right-wing in Israel to disillusionment with the peace process, the rise of the radical Islamist Hamas in the Palestinian areas and the perceived Iranian nuclear threat.
The Haaretz-Dialog survey questioned 491 Israelis on Monday and Tuesday. It had a stated margin of error of 4.5 per cent.
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