Following former coalition chairwoman MK Idit Silman's resignation from the coalition this week, Israel Hayom polled the public about what political alternatives they would prefer.
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The poll found that if an election were held now, the Likud would win 35 seats, followed by Yesh Atid with 19. Shas would win nine seats, and Labor, Blue and White, the Religious Zionist party, and United Torah Judaism would all win eight seats each.
Yisrael Beytenu would win six seats, as would the Joint Arab List, while Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's Yamina party would win five seats and Meretz and Ra'am would each secure four. Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar's New Hope party would not pass the minimum electoral threshold, the poll indicated.
When asked what government they would prefer to see, 41% of responded said they would opt for a government under Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu supported by coalition defectors. Another 28% of respondents said they would prefer the current government, and 11% said they would prefer a government led by a Likud MK other than Netanyahu. Twenty percent of respondents said they did not know.
Slightly less than a third (31%) of respondents said they wanted to see the current government remain in place, whereas 29% said they wanted another general election and 27% would like to see a different government formed in the current Knesset. Thirteen percent said they did not know.
When asked who they felt was best qualified to serve as prime minister, 41% of respondents picked Netanyahu, while 15% picked Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid. Nine percent of respondents said Defense Minister and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz was the best person to serve as prime minister, 6% picked Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and 5% pointed to former Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.
As for the question of what might have prompted Silman to resign, 47% said her motives were political, 31% said they were ideological, and 22% said they did not know.
The poll was conducted by the Maagar Mohot Institute, under the directorship of Professor Yitzhak Katz. The poll was carried out online from April 6-7, 2022, and included 502 respondents that formed a representative sample of the Israeli population age 18 and over. The margin of error was 4.4%.
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