Likud Slumps to Yearly Low as Eisenkot Hits New High in Poll

A new Maariv poll published Friday shows Likud falling to 22 seats, its lowest level since August last year. The joint list led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid also drops, slipping to 21 seats, two fewer than last week, while Gadi Eisenkot’s new party, Yesh!, reaches a record 20 seats since its founding.

The Religious Zionism party enters the Knesset projection with four seats, and the poll says that helped take support away from Bennett and Likud. The Democrats, led by Yair Golan, remain the largest party outside the top three with 10 seats. Yisrael Beytenu loses one seat and stands at nine, the same total as Otzma Yehudit and Its leader Itamar Ben Gvir.

The poll was taken in a week when the Basic Law on Torah study passed a preliminary reading. Shas falls by one seat to eight, while United Torah Judaism stays at seven. Among the Arab parties, Ra’am and Hadash-Ta’al keep their previous standings with four and six seats respectively. Blue and White, Balad, and the Reservists did not pass the electoral threshold.

In the survey on preferred candidate for prime minister, Bennett leads Benjamin Netanyahu 43% to 39%. Eisenkot widens his lead over Netanyahu to 44% to 40%. Netanyahu still leads Avigdor Liberman, 41% to 37%, but that margin has narrowed sharply from the previous poll, when Netanyahu led 48% to 29%.

The poll also asked about trust in Donald Trump amid tensions with Iran. Half of Israelis said they trust him to act in Israel’s interests in a confrontation with Iran, while 43% said they trust him little or not at all, and 7% said they do not know.