Overview
- The Channel 13 survey published Thursday gives Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar 23 Knesset seats and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud 22 seats, the first published poll to put Yashar ahead.
- Respondents rated Eisenkot more suitable for prime minister at 46% versus 36% for Netanyahu, reflecting a move in voter perceptions of leadership on security and competence.
- The poll projects opposition parties would hold 69 seats compared with 51 for the governing coalition, but Jewish opposition lists remain short of the 61 seats needed to form a government without Arab‑majority lists.
- Prediction markets have reacted by repricing Eisenkot’s chances of becoming prime minister at roughly 40%, and the Likud has shifted parts of its campaign messaging toward Eisenkot as the main challenger.
- Pollmakers named Hamadad, Project Hamidgam, Askaria and Stat‑Net as partners but did not publish respondent counts or sampling error, and other recent surveys show different results, highlighting continued uncertainty ahead of a planned Knesset dissolution and October election window.