PNN – While existing polls indicate that Benjamin Netanyahu would lose his hold on power in the occupied territories if elections were held, Ehud Barak stated that Netanyahu is seeking to postpone the elections.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network citing Shehab News Agency; former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak stated that Netanyahu is attempting to create conditions for a war that could lead to the postponement of the elections.
Noting that “Netanyahu lies as naturally as he breathes,” he emphasized that there are genuine concerns that Netanyahu makes decisions not based on security interests, but rather to ensure his own political and personal survival.
Barak continued: For some time, I have been warning that Netanyahu is creating conditions—not only regarding the Iran issue but also in the West Bank and Gaza—where a single spark would be enough to ignite a war, even just days before the election.
In this context, the latest poll by the Hebrew-language newspaper Maariv indicates that the Zionist regime’s ruling coalition has gained two seats compared to the previous survey, reaching a total of 51; conversely, the Zionist opposition parties have lost two seats, bringing their total to 53.
According to the poll, the party led by Gadi Eisenkot continues to hold the highest number of seats—21—though it has lost one seat since the previous survey and four seats over the course of a month. Meanwhile, the Likud party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, has seen its standing rise from 18 to 19 seats.
The “Together” party secures 13 seats, the Democrats 10 seats, “Yisrael Beiteinu” and “Otzma Yehudit” 9 seats each, the Joint Arab List 7 seats, “United Torah Judaism” and Shas 7 seats each, and “Religious Zionism” 5 seats. The “Ra’am” list also wins 5 seats, while the “Amkha Yisrael” party and the “Reservists – Economy” list each obtain 4 seats.
Accordingly, the Arab parties hold a total of 12 seats, while the “Reserve Forces – Economy” list secures 4 seats independently; consequently, the figures of 51 seats for the coalition and 53 seats for the opposition do not, on their own, account for the Knesset’s total of 120 seats.
Regarding the premiership, data from the poll shows Eisenkot garnering 47% support and Netanyahu 41%, with the gap between them standing at 6 percentage points.
The survey also indicates that 67 percent of participants expressed varying degrees of concern regarding the recurrence of a security incident on the scale of the October 7 events; 24 percent said they were very concerned and 43 percent expressed some level of concern, while 26 percent stated they were not concerned about such a scenario.