Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud Party are recovering in one poll of the Israeli electorate, as the public shows faith in his leadership during the war against Hamas.
Netanyahu and Likud led a right-wing sweep in the November 2022 elections, winning 65 of the 120 seats in Israel’s parliament, or Knesset, as part of a conservative bloc. But a year of protests over judicial reform, and the shock of the Hamas attack on October 7, saw Netanyahu and Likud’s polls plummet for several months.
One poll, by Israel’s Channel 12, still shows opposition leader Benny Gantz — head of the center-right Blue and White Party, which has joined Netanyahu in an emergency national unity government — leading by a wide margin, with twice Likud’s seats.
However, another poll, conducted by Channel 14 and Direct Polls, shows Netanyahu’s Likud Party edging Gantz’s Blue and White, 27 seats to 26. Previously, Gantz’s party had polled as high as 37-40 seats — a sign of public dissatisfaction with the right-wing coalition.
Neither the right- nor left-wing coalitions would achieve a majority in the Channel 14 poll, but the right leads overall, 57 to 53.
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Meanwhile, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid continues to slide to 12, Avigdor Liberman’s hawkish opposition party Yisrael Beiteinu rises to 11 seats, Itamar Ben Gvir’s party rises to 9 seats, and Religious Zionism and Meretz both continue to get the minimum of 4 seats in the Knesset.
On the question of who would be better as Prime Minister, too, a reversal has occurred: from October 7 to now, Benny Gantz won the question with voters supporting Gantz in the high 40s and Netanyahu scraping by in the twenties.
Now, Netanyahu is considered a better Prime Minister than Gantz 42-32, and the support for Bibi increases when he is matched against Lapid – 44-28.
The Arab parties, which together account for ten seats, would hold the balance of power — though it is unclear if either the left or right would join a coalition with them, or vice versa, given that some have radical views.
Netanyahu, while controversial on domestic issues, remains widely — if grudgingly, by some — respected for his statesmanship, especially as Israel comes under increasing pressure from a Democratic administration and from international institutions.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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