Israel’s Netanyahu down in polls over judicial reform

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken a hit in the polls over a judicial law his hard-right coalition has championed, deepening a crisis that has shaken Israelis, seeped into the military, bruised the economy and dismayed Washington.
Surveys published late on Tuesday by two main Israeli news broadcasters showed that if an election was held now, the number of seats held by Netanyahu’s governing coalition in the 120-seat Knesset would fall from 64 to 52 or 53.
Seats held by Netanyahu’s Likud party would fall from 32 to 28, according to N12 News, and to as low as 25 seats in a survey by broadcaster Reshet 13.
On Monday, Netanyahu’s nationalist-religious coalition, formed after an election on Nov. 1 last year, gave parliamentary approval to legislation that will limit some of the Supreme Court’s powers, despite mass street protests and fierce objections from the opposition.