New Israeli election poll puts Eisenkot ahead of Netanyahu: What to know

A new Channel 13 poll published Thursday shows former military chief Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party narrowly ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, marking the first time since Yashar was founded in September 2025 that it has outpolled the ruling party.

Elections must be held by Oct. 27 under Israeli law, though the Knesset has yet to vote to dissolve itself or set an election date. Coalition parties have agreed to dissolve the Knesset on July 17 and hold elections between Oct. 16 and Oct. 20, but those decisions have yet to be formalized in a parliamentary vote.

Yashar takes the lead

Thursday's poll gives Yashar 23 seats, compared with 22 for Likud. Despite the shift, the broader balance between the governing coalition and opposition remains largely unchanged from polls over the past six months. The opposition bloc is projected to win 69 seats, while the coalition would secure 51. However, the Jewish opposition parties would still need support from Arab parties to form a governing majority of at least 61 seats.

The Together party, which unites the camps of former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, places third with 15 Knesset seats. The left-wing Democrats party and Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beitenu each win 10 seats. The far-right Jewish Power party, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, is projected to secure eight seats, while its sister party, Religious Zionism, headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, falls short of the four-seat electoral threshold. The Arab parties are projected to win 11 seats combined.

A poll published Sunday by Israel's public broadcaster, Kan, projected both Eisenkot's Yashar and Netanyahu's Likud to win 23 seats. In that survey, the coalition bloc stood at 53 seats, compared with 67 for the opposition. A previous Kan poll published on June 4 had the Bennett-Lapid Together party in second place behind Likud, with Eisenkot's Yashar ranking third.

Eisenkot leads Netanyahu

Eisenkot also leads Netanyahu on who is better suited to serve as prime minister. Forty-six percent of respondents in Thursday's poll said he was better suited for the role, compared with 36% for Netanyahu, while 18% were undecided.

The former Israeli military chief served as a Knesset member for Benny Gantz's National Unity party from December 2022 to June 2024. Together with Gantz, he joined Netanyahu's government five days after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, arguing that Israel's political leaders should unite in wartime. Both men were appointed to the security cabinet, which oversaw the war in Gaza.

In December 2023, Eisenkot's son was killed while serving as a soldier in Gaza. Two of his nephews were also killed in the war. Although Eisenkot backed Israel's military campaign, he also called for a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. As Netanyahu continued the war while rejecting efforts to reach a ceasefire, Eisenkot left the cabinet.

Last year, he founded Yashar, rejecting overtures from both Bennett and Lapid to join their respective camps.