Poll Shows Likud Party Decline, Gantz Leads Netanyahu for PM

A new poll conducted by Maariv newspaper indicates a significant drop for the Likud party, which garnered only 18 seats. Despite this decline, the coalition bloc remains stable at 50 seats, partly due to the "Am Echad Israel" party surpassing the electoral threshold and the "Religious Zionism-Identity" alliance increasing its strength to 6 seats.

In the opposition camp, the "United List of Reserve Soldiers and Economists" entered the seat distribution with 4 seats. The "Yashar" party lost two seats, while "Me'am" and "Democrats" each dropped one seat. According to the poll results, "Yashar" would receive 23 seats, Likud 18, "Me'am" 13, "Democrats" and "Yisrael Beiteinu" 9 each, "Otzma Yehudit" 8, "Shas" and "United Torah Judaism" 7 each, the Joint Arab List 7, the "Religious Zionism-Identity" alliance 6, the "United List" 5, "Am Echad Israel" 4, and the "United List of Reserve Soldiers and Economists" 4 seats.

The poll divides the Zionist opposition parties, excluding Hendl and Zelicha's party, to secure 54 seats, while Arab parties maintain their strength at 12 seats. Both "Am Echad Israel" and the "United List of Reserve Soldiers and Economists" are close to the 3.25% electoral threshold, with 3.4% and 3.5% respectively.

Regarding the preferred candidate for Prime Minister, Benny Gantz leads Benjamin Netanyahu with 48% compared to 40%, narrowing the gap to 8 percentage points. In a hypothetical match-up against Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu received 44% to Bennett's 41%. However, Netanyahu leads Avigdor Lieberman with 42% to 38%.

The survey was conducted by Lazar Research, led by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in collaboration with Panel4All, polling 600 respondents. The margin of error is approximately 4%.