Majority of Israelis favor unity government if October 27 election ends without clear winner - poll

The majority of Israelis would prefer a unity government to another election if the upcoming vote on October 27 doesn't produce a clear result, a Maariv poll conducted by Lazar Research, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with Panel4ALL found.Only 27% said they would prefer another election, while 18% were unsure, the Friday survey also showed.Significant differences emerged between the opposition and coalition blocs. A majority of opposition voters (54%) said they would support a unity government only if it were led by a leader from their bloc.Coalition voters were more divided. Nearly 40% said they would prefer a unity government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, while 32% said that, in the event of another deadlock, they would prefer another election.Eisenkot considered more suitable for prime ministerThe Maariv poll also found that 48% of people think Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot would make a better prime minister than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had 41% support, giving Eisenkot a significant lead.Against B'Yachad leader Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu and Bennett were tied at 43% support each. Against Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, Netanyahu led with 43% support, while Liberman had 37%.The poll also found that a large majority of Israelis (79%) were optimistic and believed the bloc they planned to vote for would win the election. By comparison, only 21% were pessimistic.A breakdown by bloc showed a significant gap between coalition and opposition voters. Among coalition voters, 90% said they were optimistic and expected their bloc to win, compared with 75% of opposition voters who expressed optimism about an election victory.Coalition, opposition blocs lose one seat eachAs Israel enters the final stretch before election day, the Arab parties gained one seat each this week, reaching a combined high of 14 seats, while Likud fell by two seats to just 18, according to a Maariv poll.Despite Likud's two-seat drop, the coalition bloc lost only one seat, falling to 51. This was because United Torah Judaism gained one seat to reach eight, while People of Israel crossed the electoral threshold with four seats.However, Yisrael Beytenu also lost one seat, falling to eight, bringing the opposition bloc down by one seat to 51 and leaving the two blocs tied.The Reservists-Economic Party crossed the electoral threshold with four seats and is not counted as part of either bloc. Even if it were added to either side, however, neither bloc would reach the 61 seats needed for a majority.Yashar largest party, leading Likud, B'YachadYashar polls the highest, at 21 seats, with B'Yachad trailing behind at 13 seats.Yair Golan's Democrats received nine, while Yisrael Beytenu, Itamar Ben-Gvir's Otzma Yehudit, the Joint List, and United Torah Judaism all polled at eight seats.Following closely behind is Shas with seven, Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionist Party and Mansour Abbas's Ra'am with six each.Ofer Winter's People of Israel and Yoaz Hendel and Yaron Zelekha's Reservists-Economic Party passed the threshold with four seats each.Blue and White (1.1%), the Haredi Public (0.5%), Noam for Israel (0.5%), and Tzomet Beit Yisrael (0.2%) did not cross the electoral threshold. The share of undecided voters stood at 5.2%.The poll was conducted on October 14 and 15 among a representative sample of Israel's population aged 18 and over, including Jews and Arabs. The sample consisted of 700 respondents.