Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot both ranked ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a new suitability-for-prime-minister poll published Friday, as Israel’s opposition parties continue testing new alignments ahead of a future election.
The Lazar Research survey, conducted with Panel4All, found that 46% of respondents viewed Bennett as suitable for the premiership and 44% said the same of Eisenkot, compared with 41% for Netanyahu. In a direct comparison between Bennett and Eisenkot, 33% preferred Eisenkot, 32% chose Bennett, and 35% said they did not know.
The poll also showed mixed results for the new Together electoral list, formed by Bennett and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid. It would still be the largest faction if elections were held now, but its projected strength fell to 28 seats from the 31 seats Bennett and Lapid’s parties had held separately in the previous week’s polling.
The survey found no clear public consensus on whether Eisenkot should join Together. Thirty-four percent said he should accept Lapid’s offer to run as No. 2 on the combined electoral list, 30% said he should continue independently, and 36% were undecided.
The current coalition bloc gained one seat in the poll, reaching 50, while the opposition bloc, excluding Arab parties, fell to 60 seats. Within the coalition, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit rose to nine seats. In the opposition, Yair Golan’s Democrats climbed to 10, while Eisenkot’s Yashar party dropped to 14.
A possible moderate right-wing slate led by former Likud figures, including Yuli Edelstein, Moshe Kahlon, and Gilad Erdan, received 3.5% support, leaving it close to the electoral threshold.
The poll was conducted April 29–30 among 501 Israeli adults and had a 4.4% margin of error.
