From the Liveblog of
Thursday, June 18, 2026
Polls show Eisenkot’s party overtaking Bennett’s, gaining on or matching Netanyahu’s
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Election surveys released today show continued momentum for Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party, which overtakes fellow opposition party Together, and gains on or matches Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.
A poll by The Times of Israel’s partner site, Zman Yisrael, shows Yashar pulling even with Likud at the top of the heap, with each party winning 22 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Bennett’s party, by contrast, which was neck-and-neck with Netanyahu’s party in many previous surveys, drops to third place with 19 seats.
Overall, the poll finds that Netanyahu’s coalition would win 50 seats while anti-Netanyahu Jewish parties would win 60, just shy of a 61-seat majority. The poll finds that Arab parties would win 10 seats.
The Zman Yisrael survey polled 500 voters between yesterday and today, with a 4.4% margin of error.
A poll by Channel 12 returns similar results, also showing Eisenkot’s party overtaking Bennett’s, 21 seats to 19, with both closely trailing Likud, which takes 22. A look back at Channel 12 polls dating back to April shows Eisenkot steadily gaining on Bennett in the race to be the largest opposition party, before exceeding his total in today’s survey.
The Channel 12 poll finds that the Jewish anti-Netanyahu parties would win 59 seats, while Netanyahu’s coalition would win 51 and Arab parties would win 10.
Both polls also test how voters would respond if Bennett’s and Eisenkot’s parties merged. The surveys both found that the united party would win fewer seats than the parties would win collectively if they remained separate.
For months, polls have consistently found that neither side would win a majority outright in the Knesset, despite this year’s seismic domestic and foreign developments. Most polls show the opposition coming closer to a majority than the coalition.
The Channel 12 poll finds that 39% of voters prefer Eisenkot over Netanyahu for prime minister, while 35% prefer Netanyahu over Eisenkot.
In a Bennett-Netanyahu race, however, 37% prefer Netanyahu while 35% prefer Bennett.
The Times of Israel Community.