Most opposition voters back government supported by Ra’am party if election tied, poll shows

By Sam Sokol 6 January 2026, 6:56 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Ra'am party leader MK Mansour Abbas speaks before a faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem on December 29, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A majority of voters for most opposition parties support establishing a government with the support of the Islamist Ra’am party in the event of a tie between the two major blocs in the next election, a new poll by the Israel Democracy Institute has found.

According to the institute’s monthly Israeli Voice Index for December 2025, 94.5 percent of voters for The Democrats, 62% of Bennett 2026 voters, 58% of Yesh Atid voters and 52% of Gadi Eisenkot’s Yasher voters answered positively when asked if “in the event of a tie between the blocs after the next elections, would you support or not support the establishment of a government headed by the political camp that is closest to your position, which relies on cooperation with Ra’am, headed by Mansour Abbas.”

Supporters of Yisrael Beytenu were divided 47% for and 44% against.

The survey found 29.5% of Bennett voters, 17% of Yashar voters and 25% of Yisrael Beytenu voters would only support such a move if there were no other possibility to establish a government.

Recent polling has shown the Bennett-led bloc hovering around 58-59 seats and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc standing around 51-52 seats, leaving neither with the 61-seat majority necessary to form a government.

The Naftali Bennett-Yair Lapid government, which was in office from 2021 to 2022, made history by including Ra’am in its diverse coalition of right-wing, centrist and left-wing parties.

However, both Bennett and Liberman have vowed not to sit with Ra’am again, even as Eisenkot has implied that Zionist opposition parties might rely on the cooperation of Arab parties to form a government after the next elections.