A Channel 12 News poll published Thursday night shows a major shift in Israel’s political race: Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party has overtaken Naftali Bennett’s Yachad party for the first time. Yashar rises to 21 seats, up one from the previous poll, while Yachad slips to 19. The poll also says a joint list led by Eisenkot would do better than one led by Bennett.
Likud remains steady at 22 seats. Behind the top two, Yair Golan’s Democrats get 10 seats. Shas, Otzma Yehudit and Yisrael Beiteinu each receive 9, while United Torah Judaism holds 7. The Arab parties Hadash-Ta'al and Ra'am stay at 5 each, and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism remains above the electoral threshold with 4. Below the threshold are the Reservists party led by Yoaz Hendel at 1.9%, Balad led by Sami Abu Shahadeh at 1.7%, Blue and White led by Benny Gantz at 1.9%, and the new “Place for Everyone” party led by Rul Daoud and Alon-Lee Green at 0.2%.
On bloc totals, the opposition including the Arab parties stands at 69 seats, while the coalition has 51, the same overall balance as in previous polls. In a hypothetical joint list, Bennett as leader would bring 34 seats, while Eisenkot would bring 38. In the “change bloc” scenario, Bennett’s leadership would drop that bloc to 57 seats.
Eisenkot also edges out Benjamin Netanyahu again on the question of who is better suited to be prime minister, with 39% to Netanyahu’s 35%, Eisenkot’s best showing in this matchup so far. By comparison, Netanyahu gets 37% against Bennett’s 35%, and 37% against Avigdor Liberman’s 24%.
