Poll: In first, Eisenkot overtakes Bennett, emerges as Netanyahu’s top challenger

Former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party emerges as the second-largest for the first time, overtaking Naftali Bennett’s party and trailing only Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, according to a new poll by The Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language sister site, Zman Yisrael.

The survey gives Eisenkot 16 seats, up from 15 last week and 12 three weeks ago, in what has been a steady and consistent rise for more than a month.

Bennett, who has been seen as the leading challenger to Netanyahu and whose party has consistently ranked as the largest in the opposition and second-largest overall, fell from 17 seats last week to 15 this week.

The results also show Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid collapsing to just five seats, falling by one seat since last week, in its lowest showing Zman Yisrael polls have yet to record.

As for the remaining anti-Netanyahu parties, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu remains at 10 seats and Yair Golan’s left-wing Democrats would win nine seats.

The opposition bloc sees an increase from 56 seats last week to 59 in its closest yet to reaching the 61-seat majority, since Benny Gantz’s Blue and White manages to cross the electoral threshold with four seats, which it failed to do last week.

The bloc does not include the four Arab parties that signed an agreement in January to work toward running together on a joint list and remain projected to win 10 seats if they end up running separately.

Meanwhile, the coalition appears to have weakened, dropping from 54 seats last week to 51, in part because Religious Zionism resumes falling below the electoral threshold.

The survey also polled Israelis regarding the impact of the war on routines and mood, finding that 44% have altered their work or study routine, including 14% who say they have temporarily stopped working altogether and another 14% who say they have shifted to working or studying from home, while roughly half report no change.

The toll on mental health is also evident, with 41% of respondents saying they are experiencing increased anxiety, depression, and/or irritability, while 45% say that their moods have remained the same, and eight percent who say their mood has improved.

Israelis appear glued to the news, with nearly half of the country at 48% watching at least two to three hours or more a day, a third saying they tune in for an hour a day, and only 16% saying they don’t watch at all.

The poll was conducted on March 18-19, 2026, among 500 respondents, controlled by age, religion, gender, and place of residence. The margin of error is 4.4%.