No gain for Likud in first post-primary poll

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud remains behind Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar in a poll published by the Kan public broadcaster, the first major poll since the party’s primary results were published yesterday.

The online survey of 588 eligible voters conducted yesterday gives Yashar 24 seats, followed by Likud with 23, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid’s B’Yachad with 14 and Yair Golan’s The Democrats with 10.

Yisrael Beytenu and Otzma Yehudit get nine seats each, followed by United Torah Judaism with 8, Shas with 7, Hadash-Ta’al with 6, and Ra’am with 5.

Religious Zionism rounds out the simulated results, squeaking across the threshold with four seats.

None of the small center-right parties belonging to the so-called “third bloc,” including Blue and White, Zionist Home-The Reservists, and Unity make the cut. The Arab nationalist Balad party also fails to enter the Knesset.

Assuming that the pro-Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu camps remain as they currently are, neither side would have enough seats to reach 61 without the support of Arab parties, though those opposed to the current government would be closer, with 57 seats to the Likud-led bloc’s 52.

Analysts believe maneuvering by Netanyahu to increase control over the Likud electoral slate and marginalize hardliners was designed to make the party more palatable to the general public and raise its haul in the general election, but the poll suggests the more moderate roster has yet to do the trick.

Asked for their views of the new electoral slate chosen by Likud primary voters this week, 18 percent say that it is better than the previous list from 2022 while 14% describe it as worse and 44% see no difference.

Among those who previously voted for Likud, however, 41% see the new list as an improvement.