Israeli Poll: Netanyahu's Coalition Declines Despite His Visit to Washington

SadaNews: The results of a public opinion poll published by the Hebrew newspaper "Ma'ariv" revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition is still declining in the number of seats, despite his recent visit to the United States and the increased discussions about the imminent achievement of a prisoner exchange deal and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

According to the poll conducted by the "Lazar Research" institution, Netanyahu's bloc maintained 51 seats, while the opposition bloc rose to 59 seats, led by former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, whose estimates suggest he would obtain 25 seats if he led a new party in the elections, surpassing Likud, which has declined to 24 seats.

The poll, which included 501 participants from various segments of Israeli society, also indicated a decline in the strength of the "Yesh Atid" party led by Yair Lapid to 7 seats, while the parties "Yisrael Beiteinu," "Kahol Lavan," and "Democrats" saw a slight increase of one seat each. In contrast, the "Religious Zionism" party, led by the extremist Smotrich, surpassed the electoral threshold for the first time in months, achieving 4 seats at the expense of Likud, according to SadaNews monitoring.

As for the Arab lists, the "Unified" party received 6 seats while the "Joint/Change" alliance secured 4 seats, while "The Gathering" failed to exceed the electoral threshold, achieving 2.2%.

On another note, the survey indicated that 47% of respondents are optimistic about reaching a near-term exchange deal with Hamas, whereas 37% expressed pessimism, and 16% answered that they do not know. The data showed that optimism prevails more among coalition voters (61%), while opposition voters tend to be pessimistic at a rate of 48%.

In a question regarding which party is most committed to securing the return of hostages from Gaza, 51% stated that Netanyahu is the most committed, while 34% believed that U.S. President Donald Trump deserves such trust.