Almost half of Israelis, particularly those aligned with parties that form Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, believe that there was a "betrayal from within" conspiracy around the morning of October 7, 2023, a poll published by Maariv on Friday found.
Out of the respondents, a slight plurality, at 44%, believed that there was no "betrayal from within," while 40% believed such an event did occur, and 16% said they were unsure.
The poll also broke down these results by political affiliation, with 61% of coalition voters believing there was an "betrayal from within," while 64% of opposition voters believed there was no such event.
Smotrich-Feiglin merger, launch of Winter's People of Israel, boosts PM's coalition to highest point since May
Meanwhile, the alliance between Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionist Party and Moshe Feiglin's Zehut pushed them above the 3.25% electoral threshold, gaining five seats, the poll also found.
The Ofer Winter-led People of Israel party also passed the threshold with four seats, boosting Netanyahu's coalition to 51 seats in the poll for the first time since May.
In contrast, the opposition bloc fell by two seats to 57, driven by a two-seat weakening of Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party. The Arab parties also lost one seat as compared to last week's poll.
This raises serious doubts about whether the opposition can form a government without the help of another party, as it has moved four seats away from the 61-seat majority needed.
However, RZP and People of Israel are still in danger of failing to pass the threshold, which could heavily change the picture.
Who is the most suitable prime minister?
The poll also queried respondents on who is most suitable to be prime minister following the election.
The latest poll found that the gap between Eisenkot and Netanyahu narrowed as compared to previous weeks, with Eisenkot being supported by 48% of respondents as compared to 39% who would support Netanyahu out of the two.
Former prime minister and leader of B'Yachad, Naftali Bennett, is also viewed as more suitable to be PM than Netanyahu, with 43% of those surveyed supporting him, as compared with 39% who would prefer Netanyahu. This gap is similar to those found in previous polls.
Former defense minister Avigdor Liberman slightly trails Netanyahu in a PM preference face-off, with 39% of support compared with 42% for the incumbent.
Additionally, the poll asked whether respondents fear another war between Israel and Iran in the near future. A majority, 55%, fear another war breaking out, while 39% are not concerned about this possibility. Another 6% said that they did not know how they felt on this matter.
Just over half of opposition party voters (52%) believe that there should be further mergers within the election bloc before the vote on October 7, 27% believe that the current parties should run separately, and 21% said they were unsure. Those aligned with Yair Golan's Democrats party or Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu party were slightly higher in their support for mergers at 57% and 55%, respectively.
Full Knesset election poll results
Yashar (23)
Likud (20)
B'Yachad (15)
Democrats (10)
Yisrael Beytenu (9)
Otzma Yehudit (8)
United Torah Judaism (7)
The Joint List (7)
Shas (7)
Ra'am (5)
Religious Zionist Party-Zehut (5)
People of Israel (4)
In the poll, conducted by Lazar Research, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with Panel4ALL on September 2-3, 4,102 people were invited to participate, and 600 respondents (15%) answered it. They constitute a representative sample of Israel’s adult population aged 18 and over, Jews and Arabs. The poll’s maximum sampling error is 4%.