The Yashar party, led by Gadi Eisenkot, has overtaken Naftali Bennett’s Together and tied with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud for seats for the first time, according to a Maariv poll published on Friday.
Since the start of Operation Roaring Lion, Likud has been on a steady decline, currently polling at only 21 seats.
It found that the opposition bloc, excluding the Arab parties, would hold a majority of 61 seats, whilst the current Government coalition would have only 49 seats.
Although Smotrich’s party, Religious Zionism, is now polling at a level that would pass the electoral threshold, the poll revealed that the coalition still appears to lack enough support to form a majority.
Since the outbreak of war with Iran, Likud has lost 7 seats, but it’s not just the current coalition losing seats; since the merger between former prime minister Naftali Bennett and opposition leader Yair Lapid at the end of April, their combined party, Together, has lost 11 seats, while Yesh Atid has gained 9.
Maariv’s poll found that if Yashar and Together united under Eisenkot’s leadership, they would win 37 seats, 4 fewer seats than they are currently predicted to win running separately.
They also found that Yashar and Together uniting under Eisenkot are expected to receive 4 more seats than if they unified under Bennett.
The poll found that 49% of Israelis are concerned about the current rift between Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, compared with 43% who aren’t.
The poll suggests growing voter dissatisfaction with both Likud and Bennett’s alliance, with Eisenkot’s Yashar emerging as a major beneficiary and the opposition regaining a potential majority.
The poll, conducted June 10–11 by Lazar Research under Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with Panel4ALL, included 501 respondents, representing a representative sample of Israel’s adult population, Jewish and Arab, aged 18 and over. The maximum sampling error is 4.4%.
Source:
www.jpost.com
