An opinion poll in Israel revealed that the leader of the National Unity Party and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz advanced at the expense of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Yair Lapid.
According to the poll, which was conducted by the “Panels Politics” Institute (private), and its results were published in the Israeli newspaper Maariv today (Friday), that if elections are held today, the National Unity Party, which is currently ranked fourth, will lead. And he revealed that Gantz is the popular favorite to head the government by 41%, compared to 33% who considered Netanyahu the most suitable for the position of prime minister.
Gantz has accumulated his growing popularity since the start of the popular protests that began in early 2023, in rejection of the Netanyahu government’s decision to push for laws to amend the authority of the judiciary. There is no possibility of new elections in Israel in light of the hard-right parties holding their seats in the Israeli parliament.
According to the results of the poll, the National Unity Party doubled its presence to obtain 31 out of 120 seats in the Knesset, compared to 12 seats currently.
As for the Likud party led by Netanyahu, the poll expects it to win 25 seats, compared to 32 seats today, while the opposition “There is a Future” party headed by Lapid will win 17 seats, down from 24 seats currently.
The poll reduced the seats of the far-right “Jewish Power” party headed by Itamar Ben Gvir and the far-right “Religious Zionism” headed by Bezalel Smotrich, giving them a combined 10 seats compared to 14 seats at the present time.
The newspaper expected, according to the opinion poll, that the current opposition, including the Arab parties, would get 67 seats, compared to 53 seats for the government parties. The government requires at least 61 votes in the Knesset to obtain parliamentary confidence, and the current government has 64 seats in the Knesset.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog is still mediating between the government and the opposition on controversial judiciary laws, but the mediation has not achieved any progress so far.
