Days after National Unity quits wartime government, poll finds Israelis prefer Gantz as PM over Netanyahu

National Unity chair Benny Gantz would beat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if elections were held today, according to a new poll released days after his party’s long-anticipated withdrawal from the government.

The Maariv poll, which also comes on the backdrop of Israel’s rescue of four hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza last weekend, gave Gantz 41 percent to Netanyahu’s 35%, staying stable over the past week.

Respondents also prefer Gantz as premier over Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman, with 42% to 21% respectively, according to the poll.

However the gap between Netanyahu and Liberman, the poll finds, is only two percentage points, with 37% supporting the premier compared to 35% for the Yisrael Beytenu leader.

The poll shows little movement in the overall blocs, giving 52 seats to Netanyahu’s ruling coalition and 58 to the opposition. This means that if elections were held today, neither bloc would be able to form a coalition without support from the Arab parties.

Eight months into the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel, the survey finds that an overwhelming majority of Israelis believe the country has failed in global PR around the ongoing conflict.

The Maariv poll was conducted yesterday by Panel4All and has a 4.4% margin of error.