A so-called centrist “dream team” led by Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid would beat the Benjamin Netanyahu-led Likud party in an election, according to a new poll conducted by Walla.
A ticket bringing together the current opposition party Yesh Atid with the current coalition party Moshe Kahlon-led Kulanu, along with former Israeli military chief Gabriel Ashkenazi, would get 33 seats compared to 26 for Likud, the poll showed.
Such a result could open up an opportunity for a new coalition government to remove Netanyahu from office.
In the poll, the Labor-dominated Zionist Camp won 17 seats, down from the 24 the list won in 2015. The Joint List fell from 13 to 11, while Jewish Home rose slightly, from eight to nine. United Torah Judaism, Meretz, and Yisrael Beiteinu would all get seven seats each.
When the poll asked about voting intentions with no “centrist dream team” option, Likud won a plurality of seats with 27, followed by Yesh Atid on 21, Zionist Camp on 19, Joint List on 11, and Jewish Home with ten. United Torah Judaism got eight, and Kulanu, Yisrael Beiteinu and Meretz all got seven seats each.
When asked which leader was most suited to lead Israel, Netanyahu remained the most popular among respondents with 31 per cent, ahead of Lapid (14 per cent), Kahlon (nine per cent), and seven per cent each for former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and current Labor leader Avi Gabbay.