Gaps narrow between coalition, opposition blocs as security is spotlighted in public agenda - poll

According to the poll, the coalition bloc gained two seats this week, rising to 51, while the Zionist opposition bloc fell by two seats to 53. 

Against the backdrop of security issues returning to the forefront of the public agenda, the gap between the political blocs continued to narrow, a Maariv poll showed on Friday.

According to the poll, the coalition bloc gained two seats this week, rising to 51, while the opposition bloc fell by two seats to 53.

Within the coalition bloc, Likud and the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, each gained one seat.

In the opposition bloc, the downward trend for Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party continued. The party lost another seat this week, falling to just 21 seats, a decline of four seats over the past month.

The Democrats also lost one seat this week, falling to 10 seats. The Maariv poll also found that Religious Zionism-Zehut fell by one seat to five.

The Reservists and People of Israel again crossed the electoral threshold this week, receiving four seats each. However, the three parties have still not reached safe territory.

The poll indicates that parties failing to cross the electoral threshold are losing support, with none receiving more than 1% of respondents. The share of undecided voters also declined, standing at just 6.4% this week.

According to the poll, Yashar received 21 seats, compared with 22 in the previous poll. Likud rose to 19 from 18, B'Yachad remained at 13, the Democrats fell from 11 to 10, Yisrael Beytenu remained at nine, Otzma Yehudit remained at nine, the Joint Arab List remained at seven, United Torah Judaism rose to seven from six, Shas rose to seven from six, Religious Zionism-Zehut fell to five from six, Ra'am remained at five, People of Israel remained at four, and the Reservists and Economic Party remained at four.

Blue and White, with 0.7%, the Haredi Public party, with 0.6%, Noam, with 0.4%, and Tzomet Beit Yisrael, with 0.3%, did not cross the electoral threshold.

According to the poll, the coalition bloc received 51 seats, compared with 49 in the previous poll. The Zionist opposition bloc received 53, down from 55, the Reservists and Economic Party received four, unchanged from the previous poll, and the Arab parties received 12, also unchanged.

Netanyahu narrows gap against Eisenkot

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu narrowed the gap with Eisenkot this week in a head to head question on suitability to serve as prime minister, with the difference falling to six percentage points, 47% to 41%.

Against Naftali Bennett, the gap remained unchanged, with Bennett receiving 45% compared with 41% for Netanyahu.

Against Avigdor Liberman, Netanyahu increased his lead, receiving 44% compared with 39% for Liberman.

Majority of Israelis concerned about possible security event on scale of October 7

The Maariv poll also found that most Israelis are either fairly concerned, 43%, or very concerned, 24%, about the possibility of a security event on the scale of October 7, 2023, for a total of 67%.

By contrast, just 26% said they were not concerned about such a scenario, while another 7% said they did not know.

A breakdown of the results showed that concern about an event similar to October 7 was shared by both coalition voters, 65%, and opposition voters, 77%, though not to the same degree.

The poll, conducted on September 30 and October 1, was conducted by Lazar Research, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with Panel4ALL, and was based on a representative sample of Israel's population aged 18 and over, including Jews and Arabs. The initial sample size was 600, while 602 respondents ultimately took part. A total of 4,413 people were invited to participate, and the margin of error was 4%. The poll was conducted using accepted statistical methods, including stratified sampling, random sampling within each stratum, and Panel4ALL's online respondent panel.