For more than a year, the Israeli media have reported that in the next elections, a new party led by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, together with the center-left bloc, will handily defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ruling coalition.
On Thursday, Direct Polls published an electoral poll that included Bennett’s party for the first time.
The results countered the media’s narrative: In a head-to-head contest, Netanyahu leads Bennett 53% to 35%.
Bennett’s party polled 13 seats in the Knesset race to Likud’s 32 seats.
Overall, with Bennett’s party included in the Knesset electoral poll, the center-left bloc wins 48 seats to Netanyahu’s right-religious bloc’s 62 seats. The Arab parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood Ra’am Party, which joined Bennett’s governing coalition, win another 10 seats.
