Likud Moves to Include Smotrich to Secure Settler Votes as Gantz's Party Surpasses It for the First Time

SadaNews Translation - A senior official in the Likud party revealed that party leader Benjamin Netanyahu might include Bezalel Smotrich on the party list to prevent losing right-wing votes.

According to what the Hebrew newspaper Maariv reported on Friday, this official has been discussing with senior officials in the governing coalition in recent days about the relationships within the right-wing bloc and the necessity of preventing any vote losses.

According to the official, Likud prefers Smotrich over Itamar Ben Gvir, as SadaNews translated.

Previous figures show that the national religious Jewish sector in the West Bank settlements votes very highly for the Likud party in any election.

According to data from the "Yesha" settlement council, about 20% of the voters cast their votes for Likud, which was the second-largest list in the West Bank after the Religious Zionism party led by Smotrich.

The newspaper states that therefore, Likud sees that including Smotrich on its list, who achieved a large part of his accomplishments in the West Bank thanks to cooperation with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, a member of Likud, would ensure that religious Zionist votes do not go to waste.

The newspaper pointed out that this comes amid the primary elections in the Likud party, which Netanyahu was seeking to cancel, indicating that he secured designated seats in his favor to appoint his nominees for these positions to run in Knesset elections.

A poll published by Maariv on Friday showed that the "Yashar" party led by Gadi Eizenkot has for the first time surpassed the Likud party, raising the number of opposition bloc seats to 60. As SadaNews translated.

The poll showed that Eizenkot's party would receive 22 seats, an increase of two seats from the previous elections, and ten seats since the alliance of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid last April.

Likud maintains its position with 21 seats, while the Bennett-Lapid alliance has 18 seats, and both the Yisrael Beitenu party led by Avigdor Lieberman and the Democrats led by Yair Golan have 10 seats each, with 8 seats going to the Jewish Power party led by Ben Gvir, Shas, and Yahadut HaTorah.

The Religious Zionism party has declined to 4 seats, reducing the coalition's seat count to just 49 seats.

In contrast, the Arab parties maintained their strength with 11 seats.