Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s National Unity list, an alliance of the center-left Blue and White party and the center-right New Hope party, would become the Knesset’s largest faction if new elections were held today a new poll found, surpassing the Likud. According to a new poll, conducted by Midgam and released by Channel 12 Sunday night, if new elections were held today, National Unity party would more than double its electoral strength, rising from the 12 seats it won in November to 28 seats. That marks a five-seat rise over the last Midgam poll, released on March 27th. The Likud, by contrast, continues to decline, falling from 32 seats in the current Knesset and 25 seats in the previous poll to 24 seats. Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid also fell, sinking to 20 seats, down from 24 in the current Knesset and 22 in the previous poll. The Religious Zionist Party alliance with Noam and Otzma Yehudit also fell, receiving just 11 seats, compared to 14 in the current Knesset and 12 in the previous poll. Shas and United Torah Judaism remained unchanged since the previous poll, with 10 and 7 seats respectively. Yisrael Beytenu, Meretz, United Arab List (Ra’am) and Hadash-Ta’al each received five seats, while Labor and the Arab nationalist Balad party failed to cross the threshold, with 2.6% and 2.8% respectively, below the 3.25% minimum. The parties which make up the coalition government received a total of just 52 seats in the poll, down from 64 in the current Knesset, while the Opposition parties rose from 56 seats to 68. The poll also surveyed respondents how they would vote if former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett ran at the helm of a new ticket. In this scenario, Bennett’s party would receive eight seats, four of which would come from National Unity, two from Yesh Atid, and two from the Religious Zionist Party. The Netanyahu-aligned bloc would receive just 50 seats in this scenario. In head-to-head matchups between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gantz, and Lapid, Netanyahu led Lapid as the favored candidate for premier, but by a narrower margin than in previous polls, 38% to 31%. Gantz led Netanyahu 39% to 34%.
