The consequences of last Thursday’s surprise merger between the Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu parties continue to reverberate across the Israeli political landscape. Israel’s Channel 2 and Channel 10 published conflicting polling results on the share of Knesset seats that the joint list will receive in the upcoming January 22 election, with the results ranging from 35 (Channel 10) to 42 seats (Channel 2). Both polls nonetheless indicated that the electoral environment had toughened for the center-left Labor party and centrist Kadima party, with right-of-center parties still expected to divide up a majority of the Knesset’s 120 seats and incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected to return to power. Netanyahu’s Likud party meets tonight to formally ratify the agreement with Yisrael Beiteinu.