Pro-Netanyahu Bloc Gains Ground Ahead of Israel's General Election, Ties with Opposition

With Israel's general election on October 27 just about a month away, a poll showed that the political faction supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has boosted its approval ratings to tie with the anti-Netanyahu bloc.

This shift appears to be driven by right-wing parties in the pro-Netanyahu camp, previously trailing behind the opposition, which sought a breakthrough by announcing a merger to clear the threshold for entering parliament.

According to an election opinion poll released by Channel 13 on the 2nd (local time), both the pro-Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu blocs secured 53 seats each, resulting in a tie.

Falling short of the 61 seats required for a majority, both sides would need to join hands with Arab parties—projected to win 14 seats—in order to form a government.

This marks a significant change compared to a poll by the same broadcaster just a week prior, where the opposition bloc led the pro-Netanyahu camp 57 seats to 48.

This change in approval ratings is primarily because two right-wing, pro-Netanyahu parties are projected to enter parliament in this latest survey.

The far-right Religious Zionist Party and Zehut, which had previously been polled as unlikely to enter parliament, announced a merger, and the combined new party's projected seats rose to 6, surpassing the minimum threshold of 4 seats needed to enter the parliament.

Additionally, the People of Israel party led by Ofer Winter was projected to secure 4 seats, also clearing the threshold to enter parliament.

The ruling Likud party, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, also narrowed its gap with the leading opposition party, Yashar, led by Gadi Eisenkot.

In last week's poll, Yashar held 24 seats and Likud 19, but this week Yashar dropped to 22 seats, leading Likud—which rose to 21 seats—by a mere single seat.

The opposition party B'Yachad, led by former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, continued its downward trend in support, falling from 13 seats to 12.

This poll, released ahead of the candidate list submission deadline for each party on September 8, was conducted among 940 people with a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.