Gadi Eizenkot's Party Strengthens While Netanyahu's Likud Declines in New Poll

A new Channel 13 poll published on Wednesday shows Gadi Eizenkot's party "Yashar!" maintaining strength with 23 Knesset seats if elections were held today, surpassing Netanyahu's Likud, which drops to 21 seats amid internal controversies over reserved spots. The "Yachad" party led by Naftali Bennett falls to 12 seats, while "The Democrats" hold steady at 11. Other parties include Yisrael Beiteinu with 10 seats, Otzma Yehudit with 8, Shas with 7, and United Torah Judaism with 8. The "Zionist Home" list of Troper and Handel crosses the electoral threshold with 4 seats, whereas parties like Ardan, Edelstein, Balad, and Benny Gantz's Blue and White fail to pass.

The opposition bloc led by Eizenkot totals 56 seats, potentially rising to 60 if Troper and Handel join. Netanyahu's coalition bloc holds 49 seats, with Arab parties occupying 11 seats in the middle. Regarding suitability for prime minister, Eizenkot leads with 47% support compared to Netanyahu's 34%. Among coalition supporters, Netanyahu enjoys 90% backing, while Eizenkot commands 71% support from the rest of the public.

The poll also tested various party merger scenarios ahead of elections. A united list of Troper and Eizenkot would yield 22 seats, fewer than Eizenkot running alone, causing Likud to drop to 20 seats. A united Arab list of Hadash-Ta'al and Balad would have 9 seats, while Ra'am with Segalovitch would hold 5, down two from the previous poll. Benny Gantz and Ayelet Shaked again fail to cross the threshold, as do Ardan and Edelstein. In this scenario, the opposition bloc would have 57 seats, the coalition 49, and Arab parties 14.

The poll was conducted by HaMidmad (Shmuel Rosner, Nahum Salpakov) in cooperation with Stat-Net (Yosef Makleda), Midgam Project (Dr. Ariel Eyalon), and Askaria (Dudi Dror), with statistical advice from Prof. David Steinberg. It surveyed 1,240 respondents with a margin of error of 3.9%.