Approximately 60% of Israelis want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toresign from his post, according to a Channel 12 poll released on Wednesday.
The poll reveals major differences across the political spectrum.
The survey results indicated that 31% believe Netanyahu should remain prime minister, while 9% were unsure. A whopping 94% of opposition voters believe Netanyahu should resign, compared to only 24% among coalition voters.
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The poll also revealed that if former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett were to run in an election today, Netanyahu’s current coalition government would lose its majority and fall to just 48 seats. To form a government in Israel, at least 61 seats in the Knesset are required to hold a majority and secure the coalition.
Furthermore, the poll indicated that a large majority of Israelis (75%) support the establishment of a state commission to probe the failure to prevent the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre in 2023. Notably, Netanyahu is currently reluctant to establish such a state commission, arguing that Israel first needs to focus on completing the war against Iran and its terrorist proxies Hamas and Hezbollah.
The poll predicted that if there were to be an election with a new Bennett-led party, Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party would fall from its current 32 seats to 24 seats. Bennett’s party would also receive 24 seats while opposition leader Yair Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid party would only receive 11 seats.
Former Defense Minister Benny Gantz’ National Unity party would receive nine seats, as would the ultra-Orthodox Shas party.
The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party and the secular Yisrael Beitenu parties would each receive 8 seats, followed by 7 seats for the right-wing Otzma Yehudit and 5 seats each for the Arab parties Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am.
The poll predicted that the right-wing Religious Zionism party, led by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and part of the Netanyahu-led coalition government, would fail to secure the minimum number of seats to enter the next Knesset.
Netanyahu’s coalition parties would fare better if Bennett did not participate in the next election, according to the poll. In such a scenario, Netanyahu’s Likud would emerge as the largest party with 25 seats; Gantz’s National Unity would become the second largest party with 16 seats; followed by Yesh Atid with 14 seats. Furthermore, Religious Zionism would enter the Knesset with 4 seats.
While the majority of the Israeli public want Netanyahu to resign as prime minister, Bennett was the only candidate for prime minister that is more popular than Netanyahu, according to the study. Some 36% of the Israelis polled prefer Bennett compared to 34% who backed Netanyahu. Gantz and Lapid were both less popular in the poll than Netanyahu.
In June 2021, Bennett became prime minister and led a diverse coalition consisting of religious, secular, right-wing, centrist, left-wing parties as well as the Arab Ra’am party. However, the fragile coalition collapsed after a year and Bennett announced a break from politics.
Following the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre, Bennett became a vocal and effective spokesperson for Israel in international media, which increased his popularity in Israel. In June 2024,Bennett overtook Netanyahu in a pollfor the first time since the Hamas massacre.
The latest poll also revealed that 64% of Israelis believe Shin Bet intelligence chief, Ronen Bar, should resign due to the events that led to the Oct. 7 failure. Only 18% of the respondents believe Bar should remain in his post.
Bar recently signaled that he intends to resign but only after all the remaining hostages are released.
“As soon as I see this happening, I will want to pass the baton to one of my two excellent deputies,” Bar stated, according to the Israeli news outlet N12.
This article was originally published by All Israel News.
