New Poll: Eisenkot Overtakes Netanyahu, One Party Decides
A fresh Maariv-Lazar Mehkarim poll shows the coalition winning 49 seats and the opposition 57. The Jewish Home party (4 seats) could give the opposition a majority. Eisenkot's Yashar (23) leads Likud (22). Eisenkot beats Netanyahu as preferred PM (47% vs 38%). 55% oppose including Ra'am, 54% oppose the Gaza roadmap.
A fresh poll conducted at the end of last week by the Maariv website together with the Lazar Mehkarim institute and Panel4ALL shows that the balance between political blocs in Israel remains almost unchanged. The current coalition receives only 49 seats, while the Zionist opposition parties collectively gain 57 seats. The key factor that could give the opposition the necessary majority of 61 seats is the Jewish Home party, led by Hili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel, which crosses the electoral threshold and gets 4 seats. Arab parties maintain a total result of 10 seats. In the intra-party distribution, the Yashar party, headed by Gadi Eisenkot, takes first place with 23 seats. It surpasses Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, which gets 22 seats. The third position is held by BeYahad with 15 seats, followed by Yisrael Beiteinu with 10. The Democrats party continues its decline compared to last week, not returning to double digits and limited to 9 seats. Among other coalition parties, besides Likud, Yahadut HaTorah and Otzma Yehudit each get 8 seats, Shas gets 7, and Jewish Home gets 4. Arab parties split support evenly: Hadash-Ta'al and Ra'am each get 5 seats. It is noted that negotiations between Mansour Abbas and Yoav Segalovich have not yet affected ratings. Balad (1.4%) and Kahol Lavan (1.2%) remain well below the electoral threshold. An additional picture is provided by the question of the preferred candidate for prime minister. Gadi Eisenkot confidently leads Benjamin Netanyahu: 47% vs 38%. Naftali Bennett also beats Netanyahu with 43% vs 40%. However, in a direct matchup with Avigdor Liberman, Netanyahu retains an advantage—42% vs 38%. The poll also touched on Israelis' positions on key political issues. Thus, 55% of respondents oppose including the Ra'am party in a future coalition, even if Yoav Segalovich takes second place on its list. 20% support such a move, and 25% are undecided. Additionally, 54% of respondents—especially 72% of coalition supporters—oppose the proposed 'roadmap' for a settlement in the Gaza Strip. Only 24% expressed support for this plan, while 22% have not formed an opinion.