All articles tagged with #israel elections
Likud will hold primaries to determine its 120-seat Knesset list for Israel’s looming general election, with Netanyahu securing eight top spots and several post-hoc deals shaping the top 30; potential nominees include Israel Katz, Gideon Saar, Haim Katz, and tech entrepreneur Oren Dobronsky, reflecting a high-stakes, hardline stance on Gaza and West Bank settlements within the party.
Former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot has emerged as Netanyahu’s main challenger in Israel’s October election with a calm, policy‑driven style and his Yashar party; poll momentum places him close to Likud, but coalition math remains uncertain as Netanyahu’s camp emphasizes contrast and Eisenkot’s background resonates with Mizrahi voters.
A Walla-published poll shows Bennett and Lapid’s Together party would win 27 seats today, four fewer than Bennett+Lapid previously, while Likud would have 28 and the opposition bloc 59 seats—still short of a 61-seat majority. Netanyahu’s coalition would hold 51 seats, with Arab parties at 10. The result suggests the merger creates a larger party but not a larger anti-Netanyahu bloc; Eisenkot’s potential entry could boost the merged list to about 41 seats, though not enough to flip the balance without Arab party alignment. The poll surveyed 500 people with a 4.4% margin of error.
Former PMs Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid announced a merger of their parties into a new bloc called Together, aiming to unite the opposition against Benjamin Netanyahu in elections due later this year. Bennett would lead the alliance, Lapid stressed trust between the partners, and the plan includes a national inquiry into the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023 (a move Netanyahu’s government has rejected). The alliance follows past collaborations that briefly toppled Netanyahu and polls have shown Bennett as a leading challenger, though seat projections vary (an April N12 poll put Bennett at 21 seats to Netanyahu’s 25).
A Maariv poll of 500 Israelis shows the opposition holding a 61-seat majority against Netanyahu’s 49-seat coalition for a third straight week, with Likud at 25 and Bennett’s bloc at 24; Netanyahu leads Bennett 43–41 and Eisenkot 45–38 in head-to-head PM matchups, and 46% oppose Supreme Court intervention in minister appointments, while most respondents expect Iran and Lebanon tensions to continue; margin of error 4.4%.