Story perspectives

Likud Regains Lead, Cuts Election Committee Budget Amid Integrity Concerns

8/10/2026

Summary

Likud Regains Lead

Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, retook the poll lead with 24 seats.
Yashar! (Gadi Eisenkot) trails Likud with 23 seats.
B’Yachad (Naftali Bennett), Democrats (Yair Golan) and Yisrael Beytenu (Avigdor Liberman) hold 13, 10 and 10 seats.
Hadash, Ta’al and Balad would total eight seats if they ran together, although talks broke down.
Support for Yoav Segalovitz joining Ra’am is 28% among all respondents and 45% among opposition voters.

Summary

Coalition Slashes Budget

The coalition cut the Elections Committee’s budget by 50 million NIS.
Opponents say the coalition limits voting for care-home residents, prompting President Isaac Herzog to warn of election-related violence.
Seventy-two percent of Jewish Israelis doubt election integrity.
Sixty-one percent of Jewish and 60 % of Arab respondents oppose adding Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am party to the next government.
Over 50 % reject three controversial laws, with 67 % opposing the deserter-arrest ban.

History

Historical Context

On 17 May 1977 Israel held its ninth legislative election, where Menachem Begin’s Likud won a plurality of Knesset seats and ended almost three decades of Labor-Alignment rule, a shift dubbed the “Mahapach.” The result inaugurated a two-decade era of closely balanced left-right blocs and coalition-driven governments. Today’s fragmented polls, showing Likud and Yesh Atid competing for 24 and 23 seats, echo that enduring volatility.

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Likud Regains Lead

Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, retook the poll lead with 24 seats.
Yashar! (Gadi Eisenkot) trails Likud with 23 seats.
B’Yachad (Naftali Bennett), Democrats (Yair Golan) and Yisrael Beytenu (Avigdor Liberman) hold 13, 10 and 10 seats.
Hadash, Ta’al and Balad would total eight seats if they ran together, although talks broke down.
Support for Yoav Segalovitz joining Ra’am is 28% among all respondents and 45% among opposition voters.

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