It was one year ago that the general elections resulted in Yamina leader Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid forming their government, but would they be able to do the same were elections held at this time? The answer is unclear as a recent poll shows that were Israelis called to cast their ballots now, the results would be inconclusive.
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An Israel Hayom poll conducted this week by the Maagar Mochot Institute found that were elections held at this time, Likud would win 34 Knesset seats, followed by Yesh Atid (17), Blue and White (10), the Religious Zionist Party (9), Labor (8), Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party Shas (8) Ashkenazi Haredi party United Torah Judaism (8).
Bennett's Yamina party would win only six mandates, as would the Joint Arab List. Yisrael Beytenu would secure five seats, followed by Meretz (5), and Ra'am (4).
The poll shows that Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope party fails to cross the four-seat electoral threshold.
These results give the right-wing bloc 59 seats – just shy of the 61 mandates necessary to establish a government. The Center-Left bloc would secure 55 seats.
With New Hope potentially falling off the political map, the survey found that 21% of its voters would vote for Likud, as would 16% of those who previously voted for Yamina.
As part of the coalition agreement forged in the wake of the March 2021 elections, Bennett and Lapid agreed on a power-sharing deal by which the former would serve as prime minister until mid-August 2023, at which time Lapid would assume the premiership.
Asked if they believe Bennett would uphold the deal, 35% of the respondents said he would honor it, another 35% said the rotation would be postponed, and 30% were undecided.
The poll also gauged the public's approval of government policies on the issues ruling the national agenda.
When it comes to security, 38% of respondents said the government was doing well, 24% said it could do better, and 33% said the coalition was failing to properly deal with Israel's security issues.
It terms of politics and diplomacy, 20% said the government's performance was good, 21% found it to be merely adequate, and 41% said its policies were failing.
As for the economy, only 20% of Israelis believe the government is on the right path, 21% found its policies adequate, and 55% said the government is failing.
In terms of handling the coronavirus pandemic, 34% said government policies were correct, 23% found them adequate, and 39% said the government was mishandling the pandemic.
As for the Iranian threat, 61% of Israelis believe government policies fail to properly address it. Only 39% thought it was taking the right course of action. Still, the majority of the public , 51%, support negotiation efforts, while 25% oppose them.
Despite this mediocre performance report, 41% of the respondents believe that Bennett-Lapid government will live out its days, 36% said they think early elections will be called, and 23% were undecided.
Asked who they believe is best suited to serve as prime minister, 55% named Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu, 21% chose Lapid, 14% opted for Bennett, and 10% named Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.
The poll, conducted by the Maagar Mochot Institute, included 502 respondents ages 18 and over, and has a 4.4.% sampling error.
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