Gadi Eizenkot's Yashar! Party Leads as Bennett Surpasses Netanyahu in New Poll

A new poll published on Sunday evening by Kan News shows Gadi Eizenkot's party, Yashar!, leading Israeli politics with 24 Knesset seats. The Likud party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, trails in second place with 22 seats. The Netanyahu bloc has weakened by one seat compared to the previous poll, now holding 51 seats. Meanwhile, the Arab parties' bloc has grown to 12 seats following the merger of Hadash-Ta'al and Balad, and Eizenkot's bloc remains stable at 57 seats.

Regarding the preferred candidate for prime minister, Eizenkot leads Netanyahu clearly, with 41% support versus Netanyahu's 35%. Notably, Naftali Bennett, leader of the Yachad party, surpasses Netanyahu for the first time in this poll, receiving 37% compared to Netanyahu's 36%. Bennett's party holds steady at 14 seats.

The poll also examined emerging parties: a right-wing party led by Ofer Winter alone fails to cross the electoral threshold, gaining only 2.5% of votes. However, a joint run with journalist Natali Shem Tov, spokesperson Yosef Hadad, and bereaved mother Lali Deri would push the party over the threshold with 5 seats. This scenario would cause Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party to fall below the threshold.

Other new and established center-right parties also fail to enter the Knesset, including the Zionist Home - Reservists party led by Hili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel with 2.8%, Blue and White under Benny Gantz with 1.8%, and the Unity party led by Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein with 1.6%.