As the Likud continues its internal struggles ahead of the party’s primaries and ongoing clashes in the West Bank, the coalition bloc lost one seat this week and now stands at just 48 Knesset seats, according to a Maariv poll published on Friday.
The coalition’s decline is a direct result of Likud losing one seat, dropping to 21 mandates, two fewer than Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar, which stands at 23.
The Zionist opposition bloc reached 57 seats and, together with Zionist Home-The Reservists, led by Chili Tropper and Yoaz Hendel, could secure a majority of 61 seats. The Arab parties received an additional 11 seats.
The poll also showed that The Democrats party has recovered one seat this week to reach 10 mandates.
Additionally, Gilad Erdan’s newly minted Unity Party failed to cross the electoral threshold, receiving just 1.7% of the vote.
Blue and White also remained below the threshold for a second consecutive week at 1.9%, while Israel First, led by Sharren Haskel, received 0.6%, and Balad received 1.5%.
The party closest to crossing the threshold is the Economic Party, led by Prof. Yaron Zelekha, which received 2.5%. Altogether, the parties that failed to pass the electoral threshold account for the equivalent of about five Knesset seats.
The latest poll results indicated that the Knesset composition would be as follows:
Yashar: 23
Likud: 21
B’Yachad: 14
Yisrael Beytenu: 10
Democrats: 10
Otzma Yehudit: 8
United Torah Judaism: 8
Shas: 7
Hadash-Ta’al: 6
Ra’am: 5
Religious Zionist Party: 4
Zionist Home: 4
Survey showed combined Arab party, Segalovich joining Ra’am would benefit faction
The survey also examined a scenario in which three Arab parties – Hadash, Ta’al, and Balad – run together, while Yoav Segalovich joins Ra’am in the party’s second slot.
The arrangement was found to benefit all four parties, as the joint Arab list would gain two seats, bringing it to eight, and Ra’am would gain one to reach six.
In that scenario, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition would fall to 47 seats, one fewer than under the current scenario, while the Zionist opposition would lose two seats, dropping to 55.
The survey also found that Eisenkot widened his lead over Netanyahu in public preference for prime minister into double digits, with 49% supporting Eisenkot compared with 38% for Netanyahu.
Majority believe Israel should strike if threatened by Iran, even without US support
In addition, a majority of Israelis, 64%, believe that if, following an agreement between the United States and Iran, Israel were to identify an immediate threat from Iran requiring military action, it should carry out a strike even on its own and without US approval.
The survey was conducted by Lazar Research, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with Panel4ALL, on August 12-13 among a representative sample of Israel’s adult population aged 18 and over, including Jewish and Arab respondents. A total of 3,112 people were invited to participate, with 506 respondents completing the survey, a response rate of 16%. The maximum margin of sampling error is 4.4%.
