Gadi Eisenkot's Yisrael Beiteinu Surges as Netanyahu's Likud Declines in New Poll

A new Maariv poll published on Friday shows Gadi Eisenkot's party, Yisrael Beiteinu, reaching a record high of 26 Knesset seats, surpassing Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, which dropped to 20 seats compared to the previous poll. Despite Likud's decline, the current coalition strengthens to 49 seats, with Otzma Yehudit led by Itamar Ben-Gvir and Religious Zionism led by Bezalel Smotrich each gaining one seat, reaching 9 and 5 seats respectively.

The party "Together," headed by Naftali Bennett, remains steady at 14 seats, while the Democrats under Yair Golan and Yisrael Beiteinu under Avigdor Lieberman each maintain 10 seats. The opposition bloc totals 60 seats, excluding the Zionist Home-Militarists party, which fails to cross the electoral threshold with only 2.9% support after previously holding four seats.

The poll was conducted before the announcement of the merger between Hadash-Ta'al and Balad, yet Hadash-Ta'al gained one seat to reach six, and together with Ra'am's five seats, the Arab parties hold 11 seats. Several parties, including the new party led by Ofer Winter, Gilad Erdan's Unity, the new economic party led by Prof. Yaron Zelekha, and Blue and White led by Benny Gantz, fail to pass the threshold, collectively wasting 8.3% of votes, equivalent to about 10 seats.

Regarding suitability for prime minister, Eisenkot leads Netanyahu by 14 percentage points (52% to 38%), while Bennett holds a similar advantage over Netanyahu as in the previous poll (45% to 41%). Netanyahu maintains a slight lead over Avigdor Lieberman (42% to 39%).

Most coalition voters (66%) and nearly all Likud voters (80%) are satisfied with the recent primary results, though 13% of opposition voters and 9% of Likud voters express dissatisfaction. On the controversial issue of reserving a Knesset seat for Netanyahu's son Yair, coalition voters tend to oppose (40%) more than support (34%), whereas 49% of Likud voters support the idea.

Half of Israelis (50%) fear that the losing side in the upcoming elections might not accept the results, with the highest concern among Zionist opposition voters (56%) and Arab party voters (57%), but nearly half of coalition voters (45%) share this worry as well.