After Nearly Two Years, Another Heavy Blow for Naftali Bennett

Another political shake-up was recorded tonight, Thursday, in the official seat poll of Channel 12 News. For the first time in a year and nine months, former prime minister Naftali Bennett loses his lead over the opposition bloc, as former cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot and his party, "Yashar!", draw level with him and show a sharp strengthening trend. At the same time, the poll also shows a significant drop in the power of the ruling party: Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, loses ground considerably and falls to a low figure, against the backdrop of growing public dissatisfaction with the security situation and the tense conditions across the country.

According to the poll data, Likud still leads the political system, but weakens to just 22 seats. Right behind it, in a tight and tense race for leadership of the bloc, are Gadi Eisenkot's "Yashar!" and Bennett and Lapid's "Beyachad" with 20 seats each. The surprise of the poll comes from The Democrats, which jumps to a double-digit figure of 11 seats. Next are Shas and Otzma Yehudit, led by Itamar Ben Gvir, with 9 seats each. Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beytenu gets 8 seats in this poll, and United Torah Judaism weakens to 7 seats. Among the Arab parties, there is a tie, with Hadash-Ta'al and Ra'am each receiving 5 seats. At the bottom of the list is Religious Zionism, led by Bezalel Smotrich, which continues to hover just above the electoral threshold with only 4 seats.

Bloc picture: the coalition is moving away from the target

The weakening of Likud and Religious Zionism is also clearly reflected in the overall bloc distribution, showing a real difficulty for the current coalition. The current coalition bloc, Likud, Shas, Otzma Yehudit, United Torah Judaism and Religious Zionism, drops to just 51 seats. By contrast, the opposition parties surge and together reach 59 seats, only two seats short of the desired threshold of 61. The Arab parties, Hadash-Ta'al and Ra'am, hold a combined 10 additional seats.