בנט ונתניהו
בנט ונתניהוצילום: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Israel’s right-wing bloc would secure an absolute majority in the Knesset if new elections were held today, a new poll has found.

The poll, conducted by Maagar Mohot and released by Radio 103FM Friday morning, found that if new elections were held today, the right-wing bloc – including Yamina – would gain two seats, rising from 59 seats in the current Knesset to 61 – just enough for a majority government without relying on the United Arab List (Ra’am).

The left-wing – Arab bloc also gained ground in the poll, rising from 48 seats in the current Knesset to 50 seats, while the two right-of-center parties opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lose a total of four seats, falling from 13 seats to nine mandates.

The Likud retained its current 30 seats in the poll, while Yesh Atid surged from 17 seats in the current Knesset to 20 seats.

Among the haredi factions, Shas fell from nine seats to eight, while United Torah Judaism rose from seven to eight seats.

Blue and White declined slightly, falling to seven seats, while Labor held steady at seven seats. The far-left Meretz party fell from six seats to five mandates.

The Joint Arab List retained it six seats, while the United Arab List rose from four to five seats.

Yamina gained two mandates, rising from its current seven seats to nine seats, while the alliance between the Religious Zionist Party, Otzma Yehudit, and Noam held steady at six seats.

The New Hope party and Yisrael Beytenu both lost two seats each, falling to four and five mandates respectively.

The poll also found that if Prime Minister Netanyahu is unable to form a coalition by the end of his mandate next week, a plurality of Israelis (45%) say he should step aside and let another candidate from the Likud try to form a government.

Less than a third of respondents (32%) are opposed to such a plan.

A majority of Likud voters (54%) say in this scenario, Netanyahu should allow another member of the Likud to try to form a government, with just 28% opposing such an arrangement.

Former Jerusalem Mayor MK Nir Barkat is the most popular choice to form a Likud-led government if Netanyahu does step aside, with 31% of respondents favoring him, compared to Health Minister Yuli Edelstein with 13%, Finance Minister Yisrael Katz with 8%, Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin with 5%, and Public Security Minister Amir Ohana with 3%.

Friday’s poll was conducted online, surveying 500 respondents with a margin of error of 4.4%