Most Israelis want Netanyahu to quit politics; Bennett is currently favored as next prime minister

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Seven out of 10 Israelis reportedly want Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to quit politics and not run in the next election, according to a fresh poll by Israel's Channel 12 news, published on Friday. Only 22% of respondents believe Netanyahu should continue running for prime minister, with the rest not expressing an opinion.

Netanyahu is not only unpopular among Israelis who voted for opposition parties. The new poll revealed that 46% of those who voted for Netanyahu’s coalition partners think he should not run in the next election, while 43% disagree and continue to back the prime minister.

Despite the backlash, Netanyahu remains the preferred option for prime minister compared to his political rivals.

Approximately 36% of respondents prefer Netanyahu while 27% support opposition leader Yair Lapid, who leads the Yesh Atid party. Notably, one-third of Israelis say they want a candidate other than Netanyahu or Lapid. Furthermore, 33% of respondents favor Netanyahu compared to 32% for previous War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz. Some 30% of respondents also said they would prefer neither candidate become Israel's next prime minister.

Meanwhile, Naftali Bennett, a former interim prime minister who is currently not involved in politics, is the only candidate that Israelis believe to be more suitable than Netanyahu to lead the nation as prime minister. Some 38% of Israelis prefer Bennett compared to 33% who back Netanyahu, according to the poll.

Bennett called for a change in Israel's leadership last month during a conference in Herzliya organized by the Israel Hayom newspaper.

“The leadership often puts personal interests ahead of the good of the state, or the good of a sector above the good of the state,” Bennett stated referring to Netanyahu and his religious coalition partners. “The leadership must be changed… the political leadership and, honestly, the security leadership too.

Bennett stated that the government had failed to prevent the Oct.7 Hamas invasion and massacre.

“On October 7, the State of Israel failed in its basic mission – to be a safe state for the Jewish people. For about a month, the state did not function properly,” he noted while praising the heroism of ordinary Israelis.

“The heroism that was revealed on October 7 is at a level [that was] unknown to me,” the former prime minister said, praising Israeli youth as a “generation of lions.”

If Bennett were to re-enter politics, his new party would potentially win 23 seats, according to a new survey published by the Maariv news outlet on Friday. That is two more seats than a previous poll from two weeks ago, according to which a new party led by Naftali Bennett would gain 21 seats.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the poll revealed that most of the party’s support would come from undecided voters (nine seats) and those who currently backed Benny Gantz’s National Unity party or Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party (five and four seats, respectively).

A new party under Bennett's leadership could secure 19 seats, reducing the current opposition's tally from 59 to just 40 seats.