Poll: Netanyahu’s Coalition Loses Ground

By Staff, Agencies 

A new poll published by “Israeli” newspaper Maariv has found that Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition has slipped to 49 seats, while the opposition bloc has climbed to 61, a shift the paper attributed to "Israel's" failure to secure a decisive outcome on multiple military fronts, particularly with Iran and Lebanon.

The poll found that both the “Likud” party and the far-right “Otzma Yehudit” each lost one seat compared to the previous survey, contributing to the coalition's decline.

Meanwhile, the opposition gained ground after Gadi Eisenkot's “Yashar” party added one seat, bringing its total to 16 and pushing the opposition bloc past the 61-seat mark. All other opposition parties remained unchanged, and Arab parties collectively held steady at 10 seats.

The poll also explored how potential party mergers and alliances could reshape the political landscape.

A joint list between Yoaz Hendel, whose center-right Reservists party is built around universal military conscription, and Chili Tropper, a centrist former culture minister who recently departed Benny Gantz's Blue and White, would narrowly clear the electoral threshold with 3.3% of the vote, translating into four Knesset seats.

Under that scenario, however, the opposition bloc would fall back to 58 seats while the coalition would weaken slightly further, dropping to 48.

A separate scenario examined a three-way alliance between Naftali Bennett's “Beyahad”, Gadi Eisenkot's “Yashar”, and Avigdor Lieberman's “Yisrael Beiteinu”. That unified list would secure 29 seats; two more than in last week's poll.

In that scenario, the Democrats party, which had previously benefited from voters opposed to a merger shifting their support, would drop from 14 seats to 11, though still one more than in the baseline scenario.

The sharpest finding in the poll concerns Netanyahu personally. When asked if Netanyahu should resign, 55% of respondents said he should not stand in the next elections and ought to retire from political life altogether.

Only 38% said they want him to remain at the head of Likud, while 7% were undecided. The survey was conducted between May 12 and 13 among 502 respondents.