New Mandate Poll Shows Netanyahu Strengthening, Bennett at a New Low

A new mandate poll by Direct Polls, published Thursday evening on i24NEWS, presents a particularly painful picture for Naftali Bennett.

According to the poll results, Likud is leading with 30 mandates. Eizenkot’s Yesh! party gains one mandate and takes second place with 17 mandates. In third place is the Together party of Bennett and Lapid, with 12 mandates, down two mandates from last week’s poll. The Democrats rise by one mandate to 11 mandates. Shas remains steady with 9 mandates. Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit strengthens from 8 to 9 mandates, United Torah Judaism remains steady with 8 mandates, and Yisrael Beytenu loses one mandate and stands at 8 mandates. A joint run by Hadash-Ta’al-Balad brings the Joint List to 7 mandates, compared with 5 in the previous poll for the Hadash-Ta’al list, while Balad did not pass the electoral threshold. Closing out the list is Smotrich’s Religious Zionism, which drops from 5 mandates to 4.

In this scenario, the blocs end in a tie, with both reaching 60 mandates each.