Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party has overtaken former Likud MK Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party, and is now projected to become the third largest party in the Knesset, according to a new poll released Thursday.
The poll, which was conducted by Direct Polls, surveying 778 respondents on Wednesday, found that if new elections were held today, the Likud would win 29 seats, down from 31 in the previous Direct Polls survey, which was published in early February.
Yesh Atid gained ground, rising from 14 seats to 18, while the New Hope plummeted from 14 seats to 11.
Yamina surged past the New Hope, from 11 seats in February to 13 seats on Thursday.
The Joint Arab List would win eight seats if new elections were held today, while Yisrael Beytenu would win nine seats. The United Arab List, which split from the Joint Arab List, failed to cross the 3.25% electoral threshold, receiving 2.9%.
The Blue and White party gained ground, rising from four seats to six, while Labor fell from seven seats to six.
Among the haredi factions, Shas held stable at eight seats, while United Torah Judaism received seven seats.
The Religious Zionist Party alliance with Otzma Yehudit and Noam rose from four seats to five, while Meretz again failed to cross the electoral threshold, receiving just 2.1% of the vote.
The right-wing – religious bloc received a total of 62 seats in the poll, while the left-wing – Arab bloc received 38 seats, with 20 seats going to right-of-center parties which have vowed not to sit with a government led by Binyamin Netanyahu.
