A new poll conducted for Maariv indicated that if elections were held today, the Yashar party led by Gadi Eisenkot would top the Likud party by a large margin.
According to the poll, in such a scenario, Yashar would win 26 Knesset seats, while the Likud would win 20 seats.
Third-largest after Yashar and Likud would be former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid’s “Together” party with 14 Knesset seats.
Yisrael Beytenu and the Democrats would win 10 seats each, while Otzma Yehudit is projected to win nine seats.
Ashkenazic-haredi United Torah Judaism (UTJ) would win eight seats, while Sephardic-haredi Shas would win seven seats.
The Arab Hadash-Ta’al would win six seats.
Smallest in the Knesset are the Religious Zionist party and the United Arab List (Ra’am), projected to win five seats each.
Israeli Opposition Close to Achieving Majority
Divided into blocs, the opposition bloc continued to climb, following Eisenkot’s rise, and received 60 seats, just one seat short of a 61-seat majority coalition.
The current coalition, which included Likud and its allies, will win 49 seats, due to the strengthening of Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionism.
Eisenkot Outpaces Netanyahu in PM Preference
Menwhile, Eisenkot also widened his lead over Netanyahu in the question of suitability for prime minister, reaching a record gap of 14 percentage points.
The former Israeli chief of staff received 52% support compared with 38% for Netanyahu, while the other 10% of respondents said they don’t know.
The gap in favor of Bennett (45% compared with 41% for Netanyahu) was similar to the previous poll, as was Netanyahu’s slight advantage over Avigdor Liberman (42% compared with 39%, respectively).
Another concerning finding by Maariv poll: Half of Israelis (50%) fear a situation in which the losing side in the Knesset elections refuses to accept the results. Some 38% do not fear this scenario, while 12% do not know.
Source: Al-Manar English Website