Benny Gantz calls for elections in September/Walla!
A Ma'ariv poll published today (Friday) shows that the Likud party is getting stronger, increasing by two mandates from the previous poll and reaching 21, a record figure for the party since October 6. The religious Zionist party is also getting stronger and this time manages to pass the blocking percentage and stands at 4 mandates. In this way, the current coalition continues with its trend of improvement and already stands at 50 mandates in this poll, compared to the current opposition which stands at 65, while Hadash Ta'al stands at 5 mandates.
Another party that is strengthening by one mandate is the state camp led by Benny Gantz, which according to the current poll has 31 mandates. Yesh Atid of Yair Lapid loses two mandates and stands at 13, Otzma Yehudit of Itamar Ben Gabir drops to 9 mandates while Gideon Sa'ar and the state right are far behind and do not pass the blocking percentage with only 2.0% of the votes.
The other parties have no change in the mandate picture from the previous survey: Israel Beitenu party with 12 mandates, Shas with 9, Torah Judaism with 7, Hadash Ta'al with 5, Ra'am party with 5 and Meretz with 4 mandates.
The mandate map
The state camp led by Benny Gantz - 31
Likud led by Benjamin Netanyahu - 21
Yesh Atid led by Yair Lapid - 13
Israel Beytinu led by Avigdor Lieberman - 12
Shas led by Aryeh Deri - 9
Otzma Yehudit led by Itamar Ben Gabir - 9
Torah Judaism led by Yitzhak Goldknopf and Moshe Gafni - 7
Hadash Ta'al led by Ayman Odeh and Ahmed Tibi - 5
Ra'am led by Mansur Abbas - 5
March - 4
Religious Zionism led by Bezalel Smotrich - 4
Netanyahu narrows the gap with Gantz
This week, Benny Gantz receives 42% support for the prime ministership (a five percent decrease compared to a previous survey), while Benjamin Netanyahu increases by 2% to 37% support for the position.
Also, the more widespread opinion among Israelis is to respond to the Iranian attack with open military action (35%), especially those who intend to vote for Likud in the next elections (63%). Another 28% say it is right not to react and to leverage the alliance that helped defend against the attack to weaken Iran (Yesh Atid voters stand out in this direction - 48% and also the voters of the state camp - 39%), 21% believe it is right to respond with covert non-military action and 16% do not know.
The survey was conducted for Maariv newspaper by "Lazar Researches" led by Dr. Menachem Lazar in collaboration with the Panel4All.co.il internet panel of respondents. The survey was conducted on April 17-18, 2024 and was answered by 500 respondents who are a representative sample of the adult population in the State of Israel from age 18 and older, Jews and Arabs. The maximum sampling error in this survey is 4.4%.