The opposition is edging within striking distance of power as Likud slips to 25 seats and an opposition bloc reaches 60 mandates, putting it on the brink of forming a government, according to a Maariv poll published Friday.
The poll found that the government's recent controversial legislative blitz had a negative impact on its image. As a result, the Likud lost two seats, dropping from 27 MKs last week to 25 according to this week's reports.
Last week was positive for Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit, which would get nine seats in the next Knesset. At the same time, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism would not cross the threshold to get any seats.
Opposition strengthens its possibilities of forming government
For the opposition, the results were positive even after Gadi Eisenkot raised the possibility of forming a minority government with the Arab parties (Ra'am and Hadash-Ta'al, which would each get five seats).
The latest poll shows that former prime minister Naftali Bennett would get 22 seats in a future election, and Eisenkot would get 10. At the same time, the other 28 seats would come from Yesh Atid (9), The Democrats (10), and Yisrael Beytenu (9).
With this, and the possibility of forming a minority government with support from the Ra'am Arab party, the opposition would have a potential 65-seat majority.
The other factor to consider is the possibility of the reservist party surpassing the 3,25% threshold (this week it received 3%), which would likely change the political map of the future Knesset.
Opposition voters support minority government with Arab parties
The poll showed that 61% of those intending to vote for an opposition party are willing to include Ra'am in a future coalition to form a government without Likud and Netanyahu. 25% oppose this, and another 14% are undecided.
Among other data, most Israelis (54%) are somewhat concerned (40%) or very concerned (14%) about their personal safety abroad. 39% are not concerned, and another 7% have no opinion.
The survey was conducted by Lazar Research - headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar - in collaboration with Panel4All, on December 17-18, and involved 500 respondents, representing a representative sample of the adult population in the State of Israel aged 18 and over, Jews and Arabs. The maximum sampling error is 4.4%.