Poll shows Eisenkot would likely need Ra'am to form coalition

Segalovitz departs Yesh Atid amid his reported talks to join Mansour Abbas’s Ra’am

ToI poll indicates most opposition voters support inclusion of Ra’am in coalition if Segalovitz joins; Democrats chair said to walk back promise to reserve spot for hostage mom

MK Yoav Segalovitz informed fellow Yesh Atid members on Thursday that he was leaving the centrist party, amid reported talks for him to become the first Jewish member of the Arab Ra’am party headed by Mansour Abbas.

“I wish Yesh Atid and the B’Yachad party great success, as they continue to act resolutely for the citizens of the State of Israel,” Segalovitz said in a statement. B’Yachad is the name of the merger between Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Naftali Bennett’s new party.

In his own statement, Lapid thanked Segalovitz for a decade with the party during which the latter “acted with integrity and professionalism for the benefit of Israel’s citizens and in order to maintain the rule of law.”

The development comes nearly a week after Segalovitz’s talks with Abbas about joining Ra’am were first revealed by the Ynet news site.

Segalovitz has yet to confirm that he indeed intends to join Ra’am, but he also hasn’t denied considering the unprecedented move, which has the potential to shake up the political divide ahead of Israel’s October parliamentary elections.

Ra’am is a historically Islamist party but has taken steps to depart from its religious roots and emphasize a civic identity. The partnership has the potential of boosting Abbas’s legitimacy as a coalition partner in the eyes of opposition parties, some of which are campaigning against a potential government that includes Arab-majority factions.

A former senior police officer, Segalovitz has been credited with helping reduce crime in Arab Israeli communities during his tenure as deputy minister for public security in the previous government headed by Bennett and Lapid.

Homicide rates have ballooned since that coalition fell apart and was replaced by the current government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who appointed far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir as minister overseeing the police.

Haaretz reported Thursday that Abbas and Segalovitz are discussing the latter becoming the No. 2 candidate on Ra’am’s list as well as the party’s candidate to replace Ben Gvir in the next government.

ToI poll: If Jewish MK joins Ra’am, most opposition voters support including it in coalition

A Thursday poll from The Times of Israel’s Zman Yisrael sister site found that most voters for parties currently in the opposition would support including Ra’am in a governing coalition if Abbas’s party were to include Segalovitz.

The poll found that 56 percent of opposition voters would support including Ra’am with Segalovitz in the coalition, while 30% oppose doing so.

Among voters for the current right-wing governing coalition, the numbers are flipped: 55% oppose including Ra’am while 11% would support doing so.

Overall, voters are split, with 40% who oppose including Ra’am and 38% in support of it. The remainder had no opinion.

The poll found that if Ra’am joined a governing coalition, it would give the anti-Netanyahu bloc a 63-seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

The poll found that if elections were held today, the centrist Yashar party led by Gadi Eisenkot would win 23 seats, followed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud at 21, with Naftali Bennett’s B’Yachad on 15.

In total, the Jewish-majority anti-Netanyahu parties would win 57 seats, short of a majority without Ra’am, while the pro-Netanyahu bloc would win 51. Ra’am would win six seats, as would the Arab party Hadash-Ta’al.

The poll included 500 respondents and was conducted on August 5-6, with a 4.4 percent margin of error.

Meanwhile, Hebrew media reported that Yair Golan has walked back a promise to reserve a slot on his left-wing Democrats party for hostage mom Einav Zangauker.

Zangauker was among the most outspoken advocates for the hostages’ release during the years they were held in Gaza, and one of the most vocal critics of what she portrayed as the government’s neglect of the captives.

Golan reportedly faced pushback from members of his party who would have been pushed lower down the list had he agreed to give a top slot to Zangauker.