PNN – The ceasefire in the war with Iran and Lebanon without tangible achievements has caused a revolt in Zionist public opinion against Netanyahu.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, the latest poll by the Zionist newspaper Ma’ariv paints a clear picture of the different levels of public opinion in the occupied territories and indicates the consolidation of Benjamin Netanyahu’s defeat.
The centrist newspaper Ma’ariv is one of the media outlets that conducts weekly public opinion polls in Israel. The newspaper’s poll is also considered one of the most reliable in Israel. The poll shows that the ceasefire in the war with Iran and the ceasefire in Lebanon have turned public opinion against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Seat Distribution: Opposition Continues to Win
In the area of seat distribution, which forms the basis of competition between parties and the two main factions, it is also worth noting that for the third consecutive week, the anti-Netanyahu bloc (Zionist opposition) has maintained its parliamentary majority by winning 61 seats in the Knesset.
Interestingly, the level of dissatisfaction with the performance of Netanyahu’s coalition has been so high that the Zionist opposition parties, the two Arab parties Ra’em and the Khadash-Ta’al coalition, have managed to win a majority vote even without needing 10 seats. In contrast, the ruling coalition led by Netanyahu has only 49 seats.
This is while the ruling coalition’s position in credible polls before the start of the Ramadan War fluctuated between 50 and 52 seats. In this way, it can be said that, overall, at the beginning of the Ramadan War, the expectations of the Zionist community regarding achieving a tangible military victory in the war with Iran rose sharply, but the failure to achieve the declared goals (overthrowing the Islamic Republic government, causing serious damage to the government, serious damage to the nuclear and missile programs) has caused the Zionist community to despair and disillusion. This disillusionment is to such an extent that the position of the ruling coalition today is worse than the position it had before February 28.
On the other hand, the difference between the two blocs is about 12 seats, which in Zionist society is about 500,000 votes and 10% of the total voters.
In fact, despite the fact that the outbreak of war was considered a very unifying factor for Zionists in the past and caused domestic grievances to be temporarily ignored, the ruling coalition is in a very bad situation in this regard.
Likud vs. Bennett
The Likud party, led by current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which had 27 seats at the start of the war, is now sitting at 25 for the third consecutive week. The party’s two-seat drop may seem small, but in a war situation that usually ends in the ruling party’s favor, it reflects significant dissatisfaction with Netanyahu’s performance.
In contrast, the Bennett 2026 party led by Naftali Bennett, which had 21 seats at the start of the war, has now grown to 24. This three-seat increase during the war reflects Bennett’s growing appeal as an alternative to Netanyahu. Bennett, who himself has a prime ministerial background and a military and security background, has been able to present himself as a reliable option in times of crisis.
After these two parties, Yashar, led by former army chief Gadi Eisenkot, is in third place with 12 seats. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party, led by Aryeh Deri, Yisrael Beitenu, led by Avigdor Lieberman, and the leftist Democrats party, led by Yair Golan, won 9 seats.
The Jewish Power party, led by Itamar Ben-Governor, won 8 seats, and the Yesh Atid party, led by Yair Lapid, won 7 seats, while the other ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism, also won 7 seats.
In the Arab faction, the “God-Glory-to-God” coalition led by Ayman Odeh ended the competition with 5 seats, and the “Ra’em” party led by Mansour Abbas also ended the competition with 5 seats.
Qualification for the Prime Minister
The survey also asked another interesting question; this question examined the qualifications of the main contenders for the prime minister’s position.
The beginning of the Ramadan War, and especially the developments in the first days of the war, had increased Netanyahu’s qualification against Naftali Bennett by about 10 percentage points, but following the ceasefire, Bennett has also become significantly closer to Netanyahu in this area. In this area, Netanyahu is still leading the race with Bennett, with 43 percent to 41 percent.
In the race between Netanyahu and Gadi Eisenkot, Netanyahu is leading with 45 percent to 38 percent. Netanyahu also wins the race against Lieberman 48-29.
Thus, the ceasefire on the two fronts of Iran and Lebanon has made the situation so bleak for Netanyahu and the ruling coalition in Israel that society does not take any of his military successes seriously.
In the current situation, society is extremely disappointed and disillusioned with the performance of the cabinet, and this situation has established the continued victory of the Zionist opposition parties in reliable polls.