Kan pollster Dudi Hassid commented on reports that Israeli society has undergone a cultural shift since the October 7th massacre.
Approximately one-third of the country's population now describes itself as more right-wing.
With this Hassid notes: “There are more than a few people who define themselves as right-wing, but do not want anything to do with Netanyahu. A space has been created between his ratings and those of Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, former Mossad director Yossi Cohen, and so on.”
“When the public is shown organization on the right without Netanyahu, which for the moment we will call ‘the nationalist secular right', although it could be called by any number of names, the results become much higher," Hassid commented.
Regarding Gideon Sa'ar’s decision to split his party from the National Unity party in an attempt to build a new right-wing political block, Hassid believes that "Sa'ar does not have particularly high political appeal."
A survey conducted by the Midgam Institute for Channel 12 News, after Minister Gideon Sa'ar split from the National Unity Party, shows that Sa'ar's New Hope Party would win five seats.
According to the data, Benny Gantz and Blue and White win 33 seats compared to the 35 they won in a previous poll. Likud wins 17 seats. Yesh Atid gains one seat and wins 13, and Shas wins 11 seats.
Yisrael Beytenu also wins 11 seats, Otzma Yehudit 8, United Torah Judaism 7, New Hope 5, Hadash-Ta'al 5, Ra'am 5 and Meretz 4.
In such a situation, the bloc of opponents of the current government wins 71 seats (including Blue and White and Hadash-Ta’al), the Netanyahu bloc wins 44 seats, with New Hope and its 5 seats in the middle.
The poll also examined a scenario in which former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett runs as the leader of a right-wing party. In this scenario Blue and White weakens to 28 seats, Likud wins 18, Bennett's party wins 12 and Yesh Atid wins 12 as well. Shas wins 11 seats, Yisrael Beytenu 10, Otzma Yehudit 8, United Torah Judaism 7, Hadash-Ta'al and Ra'am with 5 seats each and Meretz wins 4 seats. Sa’ar’s New Hope does not pass the electoral threshold.
Respondents to the poll were also asked about a situation in which Gideon Sa'ar, Naftali Bennett and former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen run together in one right-wing party. In this situation, the Blue and White Party wins 25 seats, the Likud 17 and the Sa’ar-Bennett-Cohen alliance also wins 17.
The party led by the three men would tip the scales as the opposition bloc obtains 61 seats with Blue and White, and the bloc making up the parties in the current coalition wins 42.