Likud tied with former military chief Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party, while Eisenkot widens lead over premier in preferred prime minister survey.
Israel’s opposition bloc would retain enough seats to form a government if elections were held now, maintaining its lead over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition less than three months before the country’s early general election, according to a poll published Wednesday.
The Channel 13 poll projected the opposition bloc at 55 seats in the 120-member Knesset compared with 51 for Netanyahu’s coalition, while Arab parties were forecast to win nine seats.
Netanyahu’s Likud party was tied with former military chief Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party, with both projected to win 23 seats.
Among coalition parties, United Torah Judaism was projected to secure nine seats, Otzma Yehudit, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, eight, Shas seven, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party four.
On the opposition side, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s “Together” party was projected to win 13 seats, followed by Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu party with 10 and Yair Golan’s Democrats with nine.
In a head-to-head question on the premiership, Eisenkot outperformed Netanyahu by 47% to 36%, while Bennett also led the premier by 45% to 40%.
The survey also found that 43% of respondents believed that Netanyahu’s recent visit to the United States was primarily aimed at boosting his election campaign, while 36% said it was driven by political and security considerations. Another 14% said the main purpose of the trip was to attend the funeral of the late US Sen. Lindsey Graham.
The poll was conducted by Index, Stat Net, Sample and Askaria among 956 respondents and had a margin of error of 3.5%.
It comes two weeks after the Knesset voted to dissolve itself, paving the way for an early general election on Oct. 27 amid a continued political deadlock in Israel.
The upcoming vote represents the first instance since 1988 in which a Knesset assembly has concluded its full, legally mandated four-year term prior to an election.
