Leader of Israeli opposition Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a meeting with his Likud party in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem June 14, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
Rivals for Israel’s highest office continued jockeying for position this week, with a new poll showing improved results for a fresh political alliance, along with the enduring popularity of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel faces new general elections in November — its fifth round in less than four years — after the tenuous, ideologically-diverse coalition helmed by then Prime Minister Naftali Bennett disbanded in June, just a year after coming to power.
Honoring their initial rotation agreement, Bennett has since stepped down in favor of Yair Lapid, who is serving as prime minister until a new government is formed.
A pre-election poll released by Israel’s Channel 11 on Monday found that, were elections held that day, opposition leader Netanyahu’s Likud party would win 34 mandates, more than any other party. It was the same showing the party received in a poll shared by the channel last week.
Speaking on Monday, Netanyahu — under whose leadership Israel secured the “Abraham Accords” normalization agreements with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan — said that if he returns to the premiership, “I intend to bring full peace agreements with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.” Such future deals would “bring us closer to the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict,” he pledged.
“I know that many leaders in Arab countries have confidence in me,” Netanyahu added. “They believe that under my leadership, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. This firm position greatly contributed to achieving the Abraham Accords, and will allow me, on your behalf, to further expand the circle of peace.”
Yet the former prime minister’s candidacy remains shadowed by an ongoing trial stemming from three separate corruption cases, in which he has pleaded not guilty.
The second most popular party, according to Channel 11’s survey, was incumbent Lapid’s Yesh Atid, which gained two mandates over last week’s poll for a total of 23. In third place came New Hope-Blue and White, a joint slate first announced Sunday by the merger of Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s parties. Together, the parties gained 14 mandates — two more than they received when running separately last week.
“Our mission is very focused,” said Gantz following the joint faction’s first meeting on Monday, “to bring an end to the political crisis and to establish a stable, broad, and stately government that will fill its days.”
Also surpassing the four-seat threshold to enter the Knesset, according to the poll, were the hard-right Religious Zionist party with 10 mandates; the Haredi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism with eight and seven, respectively; the Arab-majority Joint List with six; left-wing Labor with five; secularist-right Yisrael Beiteinu with five; and the left-wing Meretz and Islamist Ra’am parties with four each.
The Yamina party headed by right-wing Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked — which until recently was the ruling party led by former Prime Minister Bennett, who said he would not run in November’s elections — failed to pass the threshold in the survey, gaining only 1.9 percent of the vote.
