The majority of Israeli voters who support the current government coalition want the current Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, from the extreme right, to be the successor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a poll released today.
According to the survey released by the Israeli newspaper Maariv, 24% of those interviewed are in favor of Ben-Gvir as Netanyahu’s successor. The minister is an anti-Arab settler who, last week, called for the execution of Palestinian prisoners, in a video broadcast by Israeli media.
“The bullets should be fired at the prisoners’ heads, instead of giving them more food,” said Ben Gvir in the video, which in January 2023 already proposed a death penalty law only for Palestinians and which was approved in the first reading two months later.
Around 14% of respondents preferred former Mossad director (information services) Yossi Cohen as Netanyahu’s successor, while 11% opted for Bezalel Smotrich, another anti-Arab settler who is currently finance minister.
The survey also projects that, if the elections were held now, the center-right National Unity party, led by Benny Gantz, would be the most voted force, with 24 seats, against the 20 that Likud (Netanyahu’s party) would reach.
However, if a new right-wing party were formed that included former prime minister Naftali Bennet (who has been threatening to return to politics for weeks) along with Yossi Cohen, Avigdor Liberman (the leader of the right-wing secular party Yisrael Beitenu) and others leaders of the Israeli right, this would be the force with the most votes, with 27 seats.
In a hypothetical choice between Gantz and Netanyahu to lead the country, the leader of National Unity would win by five percentage points over the current prime minister (43% against 38%), but between Bennet and Netanyahu the difference would be even greater, at 13 points ( 48% versus 35%).
On Monday, one of the leaders of the anti-Netanyahu right, Gideon Saar, assured that Bennet – who in 2021 managed to put an end to 12 uninterrupted years of Netanyahu’s governments, with a brief coalition Executive that fell apart after two years – intends to return to politics.
His return could give a boost to the alternative to Netanyahu, in a context of constant protests against the prime minister and calls for his resignation and the calling of early elections.
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