Haredi parties, Yashar, coalition bloc lose seats in Knesset, as Otzma Yehudit gains one - poll
Elsewhere in the bloc, the Democrats gained two seats to reach 11, while B’Yachad remained at 13, Yisrael Beytenu at nine and the joint Reservists-Economic Party at four seats.
The Haredi coalition parties lost one seat each, bringing their total to 49 seats, according to a Maariv poll published on Friday. Meanwhile, Otzma Yehudit gained one seat, rising to nine. Likud, Religious Zionism-Zehut, and People of Israel retained their previous seat counts of 18, six, and four, respectively. In the opposition bloc, Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar lost another seat, dropping to 22, while the Democrats gained two seats, reaching 11.
B Yachad and Yisrael Beytenu remained unchanged at 13 and nine, respectively. The joint Reservists-Economic Party and Arab parties also had no change in seat counts. Overall, the Zionist opposition bloc gained one seat, totaling 55. Among individual parties, Blue and White received 1.3%, Haredi Public 0.9%, and Noam for Israel 0.7%, all below the electoral threshold.
If the Knesset elections were held now, respondents would vote for Yashar (22 seats), Likud (18), B Yachad (13), the Democrats (11), Yisrael Beytenu (9), Otzma Yehudit (9), the Joint Arab List (7), United Torah Judaism (6), Shas (6), Religious Zionism-Zehut (6), Ra'am (5), People of Israel (4), and the Reservists-Economic Party (4).
In a head-to-head comparison, Eisenkot led Benjamin Netanyahu by eight percentage points, with 47% versus 39% support. Naftali Bennett also led Netanyahu, with 46% versus 42% support. Avigdor Liberman narrowed the gap with Netanyahu to three percentage points, with 43% and 40% support, respectively. A majority of opposition party voters, 48%, preferred for the party leader with the most seats to be announced as their candidate for prime minister, while 23% wanted the bloc to decide immediately.
Another 18% wanted the decision after the election, and 11% had no preference. About one-third of Israelis, 34%, wanted Netanyahu to serve as prime minister after the election, with 82% of coalition bloc voters supporting him. Among opposition party voters, Eisenkot was the leading choice, with 50% support, followed by Bennett (25%), Lapid (11%), Netanyahu (5%), and Liberman (3%). Most voters chose their preferred party leader as their candidate for prime minister.
Written by urgent.news from Jerusalem Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
