MK Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party gained three mandates, reaching a 15-year-high of 14 mandates, according to a Friday Maariv poll.
The party’s rise in the poll comes amid MK Benny Gantz’s withdrawal from the coalition, the escalation of tensions in the North, the hostage rescue operation in the Gaza Strip, and the conscription law debates.
The poll found that Gantz’s National Unity party received 24 mandates and the Likud 21. Opposition head Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party gained 15 mandates and Yisrael Beytenu 14. Shas yielded 10 mandates and Otzma Yehudit nine. United Torah Judaism (UTJ) received seven mandates. Yair Golan’s Labor party, Hadash-Ta’al, Ra’am, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party (RZP) earned five mandates each.
Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope-United Right, Meretz, and Balad did not cross the electoral threshold.
According to the poll, the coalition holds 52 mandates and the opposition 58, without Hadash-Ta’al. This signifies that to form a coalition, Ayman Odeh’s party would have to be included.
Who is more suitable for the role of prime minister?
When asked who between Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz is more suitable for the role of prime minister, the National Unity leader received 41% of the votes and Netanyahu 35%, a similar result to a previous poll. In comparison with Liberman, Gantz received 42% and Liberman 21%. The reason for this discrepancy, according to Maariv, is that center-left voters prefer Gantz over Liberman.
However, when putting Liberman against Netanyahu, there was only a slight difference of 2% between the two leaders, with Netanyahu receiving 37% and Liberman 35%.
With regard to Israel’s public diplomacy campaign on the Gaza war and October 7, the poll found that a majority of respondents (74%) affirmed that Israel had failed in its endeavor.
Among the voters for the current coalition, 57% of respondents deemed the campaign a failure, while 32% believed it was a success. Some 11% stated they had no opinion on the matter.