Likud strengthens, coalition weakens: How did the public react to the firing of Gallant? - poll

Most Israelis opposed the firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, with 57% saying they were against the move, while only 29% supported it, according to the most recent poll conducted by Maariv.

Against the backdrop of the sudden dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the perennial issues with the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) draft bill,  the coalition bloc dropped three mandates to only 49, even with Likud strengthening by one to 24, while the opposition rose to a majority of 61 mandates. The Arab parties have 10 mandates.

The survey was conducted by Lazar Research, led by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in collaboration with Panel4All.

The Religious Zionist Party (RZP) of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich received only 2.9% support this week, meaning that it again did not pass the electoral threshold.

Yesh Atid, led by Yair Lapid, and the Democrats, headed by Yair Golan, both gained two seats, bringing them to 15 and 13 mandates, respectively – 13 being the highest result for the new Democrats party since it was formed in July.

The full results:

The results were: Likud 24 seats, National Unity 19, Yesh Atid 15, Yisrael Beytenu 14, the Democrats 13, Shas 10, Otzma Yehudit 8, United Torah Judaism 7, Hadash-Ta’al 5, Ra’am 5.

In addition to the RZP, both the New Hope Party led by newly appointed Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar (1.8%) and Balad (2.2%) do not pass the threshold.

The Maariv survey also asked about a second scenario, in which a party led by former prime minister Naftali Bennett and a party led by Gallant were present.

In this scenario, the Likud would lose five mandates and trail behind Bennett with 23 while Gallant would get six, all of which come from the bloc of opposition supporters.

An optional bloc of the opposition parties, together with Bennett’s and Gallant’s parties, stands at 67 mandates, compared to only 43 for the current coalition parties.

The full results are: a new party led by Bennett 23, Likud 19, National Unity 11, Yesh Atid 11, Shas 10, the Democrats 9, Yisrael Beytenu 7, Otzma Yehudit 7, a new party led by Gallant 6, Hadash-Ta’al 5, Ra’am 5.