Kahlon and Ya'alon
Kahlon and Ya'alonYonatan Sindel/Flash 90

A new party led by former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, former Minister Gideon Sa'ar and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon could topple the Likud, a poll released Friday found.

According to the poll, which was conducted for Kol Yisrael radio, such a party would win the next election and achieve 25 Knesset seats. Likud would come down to 21 seats, and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid would win 13.

The poll, conducted by the Smith Polling Institute, found that the Zionist Union would crash down to just 11 seats, the Joint List would win 13, the Jewish Home would achieve 10, Yisrael Beytenu would achieve 8, as would United Torah Judaism. Shas would win 6 seats, and Meretz would achieve 5, the poll found.

The numbers were published hours after Environmental Protection Minister Avi Gabay (Kulanu) resigned from politics, in an act of protest over Ya’alon being replaced as Defense Minister by Avigdor Liberman.

Kahlon addressed Gabay's resignation, thanking him for his service and emphasizing his role in the party's founding. 

His resignation follows that of Ya’alon himself as well as of Yisrael Beytenu MK Orly Levi-Abekasis.

Despite the objections of some politicians, mostly on the left, to Liberman’s joining the coalition as Defense Minister, another recent poll found that most Israelis support Liberman’s joining the coalition.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)