Poll shows Sa’ar’s new party, anti-Netanyahu bloc gaining ground; Blue and White barely clearing threshold

An opinion poll published by Channel 13 news shows that Likud breakaway MK Gideon Sa’ar’s new party is increasing in its popularity and scoring just nine Knesset seats fewer than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, while Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party continues to lose ground, and is now polling only just above the Knesset threshold.

According to the survey Sa’ar’s New Hope party — including fellow Likud rebel Yifat Shasha-Biton, who said last week she was joining — would get 19 seats in the 120-member parliament. In the last Channel 13 poll, conducted last week by Prof. Camil Fuchs, New Hope gained 17 seats.

The poll predicts 28 seats for Likud, 16 for Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid-Telem, 14 for Yamina, 11 for the Joint List, 7 each for Shas, United Torah Judaism, and Meretz, 6 for Yisrael Beytenu, and just 5 seats for Blue and White.

That would mean the path to a new government would be harder for the parties loyal or possibly loyal to Netanyahu (Likud, Yamina, Shas and UTJ), who get only 56 seats. To form a coalition, 61 Knesset seats are needed.

Asked who is most fit to be prime minister, Netanyahu’s name is mention by 32 percent of respondents, Sa’ar by 15%, Bennett by 12%, Lapid by 12%, and Gantz by just 8%.

The combined phone and online poll surveyed 760 respondents constituting a representative sample of Israeli adults. The margin of error is 3.7%.