{"id":540891,"date":"2026-07-14T11:52:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/540891\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T11:52:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:52:13","slug":"poll-shows-eisenkot-with-significant-lead-over-netanyahu-as-preferred-pm-knesset-blocs-static","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/540891\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll shows Eisenkot with significant lead over Netanyahu as preferred PM; Knesset blocs static"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new television poll aired Monday showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu trailing his foremost challenger, former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot, by a significant margin, with 43% of Israeli voters saying they prefer Eisenkot as prime minister versus 34% for the sitting premier.<\/p>\n

Israel does not, however, hold a direct vote for prime minister, and the Channel 12 news survey ahead of the October 27 Knesset election showed the pro- and anti-Netanyahu blocs in about the same position they have been in for months. The anti-Netanyahu bloc would win 59 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, short of a 61-seat majority, while the pro-Netanyahu bloc would win 51. Arab parties, which have largely not joined Israel\u2019s coalition governments, would win the remaining 10 seats.<\/p>\n

Still, Eisenkot\u2019s lead over Netanyahu in the poll asking who is better suited to lead the country pointed to the prime minister\u2019s declining popularity while also signaling that Eisenkot was cementing his position as the leader of the anti-Netanyahu camp, with several other recent surveys showing his party would receive the most votes if elections were held today.<\/p>\n

Another candidate seeking to replace Netanyahu, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, garnered 35% in a head-to-head poll, behind the premier\u2019s 37%.<\/p>\n

Turning to parties, the poll found that Eisenkot\u2019s Yashar would win the most seats, 23, followed by Netanyahu\u2019s Likud at 22. Bennett\u2019s center-right opposition party, Together, would win 16.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n

The left-wing Democrats and hawkish Yisrael Beytenu, both anti-Netanyahu, would each win 10 seats. The Haredi Shas and United Torah Judaism parties, as well as the far-right Otzma Yehudit, all pro-Netanyahu, would win eight each, according to the poll. Rounding out the pro-Netanyahu camp, the far-right Religious Zionism party would win five seats. The two Arab parties, Hadash-Ta\u2019al and Ra\u2019am, would also each win five.<\/p>\n

A few additional center-right factions would fall short of entering the Knesset, the poll showed.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA plenum session at the assembly hall of the Knesset in Jerusalem, July 8, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

The Channel 12 poll also asked how the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, influenced voters\u2019 political stances, with 38% saying they moved to the right after the terror onslaught, while 49% reported no change in their political leanings. Seven percent said they moved to the left.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the survey included a question on whether voters back Netanyahu\u2019s deal with Haredi parties to pass laws<\/a> defining Torah study as a \u201cfoundational value\u201d and freezing arrests of draft evaders in exchange for their support of legislation that would significantly weaken the powers of the attorney general and give the government control over appointing a commission to investigate the failures surrounding the October 7, 2023, as well as a media overhaul bill.<\/p>\n

Sixty-two percent of poll respondents said they opposed the deal, with 22% in favor and the remainder not knowing. Among coalition voters, 18% reported opposing the deal, a figure that skyrocketed to 95% among opposition voters.<\/p>\n

The survey for the network was conducted by pollster Manu Geva\u2019s Midgam firm and included 509 participants, with a 4.4% margin of error.<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\tWe can’t do this work alone.\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n

As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can’t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Stav Levaton, military reporter<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\tYou’re a dedicated reader\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWe\u2019re really pleased that you\u2019ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month. \n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we started the Times of Israel – to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.<\/p>\n

So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven\u2019t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.<\/p>\n

For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.<\/p>\n

Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tJoin Our Community\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\tJoin Our Community\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new television poll aired Monday showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu trailing his foremost challenger, former IDF chief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[147752,49,955,85,46,14869,43,3168,203724],"class_list":["post-540891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-2026-israeli-elections","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-gadi-eisenkot","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-likud-party","tag-news","tag-polls","tag-yashar-with-eisenkot-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}