Eisenkot's Yashar party takes one seat lead over Likud following Monday's primaries - poll

Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party emerged as the largest party with 24 seats following Monday's contentious Likud primary, with the opposition bloc leading the coalition 57 seats to 52.

Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party has taken a one-seat lead over Likud, emerging as the largest party with 24 seats following Monday's Likud primaries, according to a KAN News poll published Wednesday.

Likud remained in second place with 23 seats, followed by Naftali Bennett's B'Yachad party in third with 14 seats.

Despite the shifts in individual party strength, the overall bloc picture remains unchanged from the previous poll. The current coalition would win 52 seats, compared with 57 for the opposing bloc, while the Arab parties would retain a combined 11 seats.

Likud's primaries were more contentious and competitive than in previous years, following changes that expanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's control over the party's Knesset slate. Last month, the Likud Central Committee approved a controversial measure granting Netanyahu the authority to determine eight of the first 30 slots on the party list.

Energy Minister Eli Cohen secured the top spot on Likud's Knesset slate, followed by Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, and coalition chairman Ofir Katz in second through fifth place.

Forty-four percent say Likud's primary list is no different from previous slate

The poll also asked respondents whether the Likud list elected in the primaries was better or worse than the party's previous Knesset list. Forty-four percent said there was no difference between the two, while 24% said they did not know.

Eighteen percent said the new list was better, compared with 14% who said it was worse. Among respondents who intend to vote for Likud in the upcoming election, 41% said the new list was better than its predecessor.

The poll also asked whether Religious Zionist Party chairman Bezalel Smotrich should be given a reserved spot on the Likud list. A majority of 62% opposed the move, while 14% supported reserving a place for him and 24% said they did not know.

Democrats win 10 seats as smaller parties remain largely stable

For the rest of the slate, the poll also showed that the Democrats, led by Yair Golan, would win 10 seats, followed by Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit and Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu with nine seats each. United Torah Judaism, led by Yitzhak Goldknopf, would receive eight seats, while Arye Deri's Shas would win seven.

Hadash-Ta'al, led by Yosef Jabareen and Ahmad Tibi, would remain stable at six seats, while Mansour Abbas's Ra'am would receive five. Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionist Party would gain one seat compared with the previous poll, bringing it to five.

Parties currently polling below the electoral threshold include the Zionist Home-
The Reservists party, which fell by 0.1 percentage points from the previous poll to 2.9%, followed by Balad, led by Sami Abu Shehadeh, at 2.1%, the Unity party of Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein at 1.6%, and Benny Gantz's Blue and White at 1.4%.

The poll was conducted on August 18, 2026, by the Kantar Institute. A total of 2,327 people were invited to participate in the poll, of whom 558 men and women aged 18 and over actually responded. The poll was conducted using an online sample and also included the Arab sector. The sampling error is ±4.2%.

Keshet Neev, Shir Perets, Tal Spungin, and Avi Solomon contributed to this report.