’Israeli’ Poll: Eisenkot Widens Lead Over Likud, Tops Netanyahu for PM

By Staff, Agencies

A new poll conducted for the "Israeli" newspaper Maariv shows former "Israeli" chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party leading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud by six Knesset seats if elections were held today.

Yashar is projected to win 26 seats, compared with 20 for Likud. Former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid’s “Together” party would come third with 14 seats.

Yisrael Beytenu and the Democrats are projected to win 10 seats each, followed by Otzma Yehudit with nine, United Torah Judaism with eight, Shas with seven, Hadash-Ta’al with six, and the Religious Zionist Party and Ra’am with five seats each.

Meanwhile, the opposition bloc has climbed to 60 seats, just one short of the 61 needed for a majority coalition. The current coalition is projected to hold 49 seats.

Eisenkot has also widened his lead over Netanyahu as the preferred candidate for prime minister. He received 52% support compared with Netanyahu’s 38%, a record 14-point gap, while 10% remained undecided.

Bennett also leads Netanyahu in the same measure, 45% to 41%, while Netanyahu holds a narrower lead over Avigdor Liberman, 42% to 39%.

The poll also found that 50% of respondents fear the losing side in Knesset elections could refuse to accept the results, while 38% do not share that concern and 12% were undecided.