The party of Yoaz Hendel and Einat Wilf maintained a four-seat showing in four successive Maariv polls over the past three weeks, while Israel Hayom’s latest survey put the list at five seats ahead of Israel’s October 27 election.
Hendel, a former communications minister, chairs the Reservists-Economic Party slate. Economist Yaron Zelekha holds the second slot, with Wilf, a former Labor MK, in third place.
Maariv polls published on September 18, September 25, October 2, and October 9 each projected four seats for the alliance in Israel’s 120-member Knesset. The repeated result showed a stable seat projection within that polling series, even as support shifted among larger parties.
Channel 12 also gave the list four seats in surveys published on September 22 and October 5. Israel Hayom’s October 8 report placed it at five, describing its support as stable.
The results gave Hendel and Wilf a consistent parliamentary foothold in several surveys as the campaign entered its final weeks. Their list has sought to remain outside both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc and the opposition camp, advocating a broad Zionist government.
Friday’s Maariv poll left both major camps short of a majority. Netanyahu’s camp and the Zionist opposition were tied at 52 seats apiece, with the Arab parties on 12 and the Reservists-Economic Party’s four counted separately. Neither main camp approached the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority.
Wilf outlines Reservists-Economic Party alliance priorities
Wilf outlined the alliance’s priorities in a September 27 interview with The Jerusalem Post’s Keshet Neev and Jacob Laznik. She emphasized universal service, stronger support for reservists and their families, lower living costs, and Israel’s standing abroad.
Hendel and Zelekha have said a universal conscription law must be passed before a government is formed. Wilf said she wanted to bring her work on Israel’s international challenges and relations with Diaspora Jews into the next government.