A new poll conducted by the Midgam Institute for Israel's "Meet the Press" program showed that if former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen ran in Likud primaries, he would win the support of a large segment of the party's voters.
According to the poll, 32% believe that MK Nir Barkat, former mayor of Jerusalem, is the best candidate to replace Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Following Barkat is outgoing Health Minister Yuli Edelstein with 10% of the vote, outgoing Transportation Minister Miri Regev with 9%, outgoing Finance Minister Yisrael Katz with 6%, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan with 5%, and outgoing Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin with 3%.
If Yossi Cohen, who recently retired from his position as Mossad chief, runs in the Likud primaries, 27% of the voters believe that he is the best candidate to replace Netanyahu; his candidacy would bring Nir Barkat's support down to just 16%.
In such a scenario, Gilad Erdan would win 8% support, Yuli Edelstein and Yisrael Katz 5% each, Yariv Levin 3%, and Miri Regev just 1%.
When the respondents were asked to rate Netanyahu's performance over the past 12 years with regards to security, 66% said they believe he did well overall, 31% said he did poorly overall, and 3% said they are not sure.