Poll Shows Netanyahu and Eisenkot Losing Support While Hendel and Trooper Enter Knesset

A new Kan News poll published on Sunday reveals a decline in support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and Gadi Eisenkot's Yisra party, with both losing one Knesset seat compared to the previous poll. Eisenkot leads Netanyahu with 22 seats to Likud's 21. Naftali Bennett's Yachdav party remains steady at 15 seats, while Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit rises by two seats to 10. Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu drops one seat to nine, matching the Democrats' nine seats. Shas and United Torah Judaism each hold eight seats, and both Hadash-Ta'al and Ra'am maintain five seats each. Religious Zionism has four seats, and a new party led by Yoaz Hendel and Hili Trooper crosses the electoral threshold for the first time, securing four seats. Balad and the Benny Gantz-Dedi Simchi alliance fail to pass the threshold.

The Netanyahu bloc decreases to 51 seats, while the opposition bloc excluding Arab parties holds 55 seats. The poll also tested a scenario with two new right-wing parties led by Ofer Winter and a trio of Gilad Erdan, Ayelet Shaked, and Yuli Edelstein. In this case, only Winter's party passes the threshold with four seats, Hendel and Trooper's party falls below it, Netanyahu's Likud drops to 20 seats, Eisenkot rises to 24, and the Netanyahu bloc shrinks to 48 seats.

Regarding suitability for prime minister, Netanyahu leads Bennett with 36% to 36% against Eisenkot, who is close behind at 35%. Eisenkot leads Bennett with 30% to 21%. Public opinion on the current government's performance is largely negative: 64% disapprove of war management, 73% disapprove of crime and internal security handling, 76% are dissatisfied with economic and cost-of-living policies, and 73% disapprove of the investigation into the October 7 failure. Additionally, 76% rate the opposition's performance negatively, and 56% believe Israel's situation is worse than four years ago.