MK Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party failed to cross the electoral threshold amid continued uncertainty regarding the upcoming Gaza City invasion and uncertainty surrounding a hostage deal, according to a Maariv poll published on Friday.
Despite Blue and White’s decline, the opposition bloc strengthened, rising to 61 Knesset seats compared to 48 for the coalition, and the remaining seats belonging to Arab parties.
Gadi Eisenkot’s party gained one seat this week, rising to 10 mandates.
Bennett's party leads in poll
When asked how they would vote if two new parties led by Eisenkot and Naftali Bennett entered the race, with all other parties unchanged, respondents gave the following results:
Naftali Bennett’s party took the lead with 23 seats, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud falling to 21; the Democrats Party would receive 11 (up from 10); a party led by Eisenkot would receive 10, up from last week; Yisrael Beytenu would receive nine for the second week in a row; Shas, Yesh Atid, and Otzma Yehudit all received eight, all rising from last week; United Torah Judaism received seven, unchanged; Ra’am received six, gaining one, while Hadash–Ta’al remained at five; Religious Zionism remained at four, and Blue and White received zero.
The survey was carried out between Wednesday and Thursday, among 509 adult respondents, both Jews and Arabs. The maximum sampling error is +/-4.4%. The survey was conducted for Maariv by Lazar Research, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with the online respondent panel Panel4All.