Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a stronger political challenge ahead of the country's upcoming elections, with a new opinion poll showing former military chief Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party ahead of Netanyahu's Likud.

According to a survey published by Zman Israel on Thursday, Yashar is projected to win 25 seats in the 120-member Knesset, while Likud is estimated to secure 21 seats.

The four-seat gap marks a notable change from several recent surveys, in which Eisenkot's party had maintained only a narrow advantage over Likud. In some polls, the two parties had been tied or separated by just one or two seats.

The election is scheduled for October 27, leaving both camps with roughly two months to consolidate support and build potential governing alliances.

Majority Still Out of Reach

Despite Yashar emerging as the largest individual party in the latest survey, Eisenkot would still face a difficult path to forming a government.

Israel's Knesset has 120 seats, and a governing coalition requires at least 61 seats for a parliamentary majority.

The poll projects that the broader anti-Netanyahu Change Bloc could win around 58 seats, leaving it three seats short of the majority mark.

Parties supporting Netanyahu are projected to collectively secure approximately 50 seats, while Arab parties could hold around 12 seats.

The Ram Party and Hadash-Ta'al are each projected to win six seats, according to the survey.

The figures indicate that neither major political camp currently appears capable of forming a government independently, making coalition negotiations likely to play a decisive role after the election.

Eisenkot Pushes Largest-Party Claim

Eisenkot has previously argued that the leader of the largest party within the anti-Netanyahu bloc should receive the opportunity to form the next government.

His position could become important if Yashar maintains its lead and emerges as the largest opposition party after the election.

The question of who would become prime minister has already created tensions within the opposition camp.

Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid has indicated that it would not stand in the way of efforts to establish an alternative government to Netanyahu. However, when asked whether his party would support Eisenkot as prime minister, Lapid did not provide a definitive answer.

Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is also considered a potential contender for the top post.

Bennett Example Remains Relevant

The debate over who should lead a coalition has historical significance in Israeli politics.

Bennett became prime minister in 2021 despite his party holding only seven seats in the Knesset. He led a broad coalition involving parties with significantly different political positions before his government ended in 2022.

Eisenkot's argument that the leader of the largest party should get the first opportunity to form a government is therefore significant in the context of the opposition's current political calculations.

Whether other anti-Netanyahu parties would ultimately support an Eisenkot-led government remains uncertain.

Security Concerns Grow

Alongside the political contest, security concerns surrounding Eisenkot have also emerged.

A report by Channel 12 said there were indications of Iranian efforts to target Israeli political figures. While Netanyahu already receives government-provided security protection, Eisenkot does not currently have the same formal entitlement.

His growing political profile has therefore raised questions about his personal security as the election campaign intensifies.

Israel's internal security agency, Shin Bet, is reportedly considering providing Eisenkot with armed protection.

Election Campaign Set to Intensify

The latest polling has added uncertainty to an already competitive political landscape.

A four-seat lead for Yashar over Likud could strengthen Eisenkot's position within the opposition, but the figures also show that the anti-Netanyahu camp remains below the 61-seat threshold required to govern.

For Netanyahu, retaining Likud as the largest party would remain crucial to his efforts to build another governing coalition.

With the election approaching, the contest is likely to focus not only on which party wins the most seats but also on which political groups can assemble the alliances required to cross the majority threshold.

The final outcome could therefore depend as much on coalition arithmetic as on the performance of individual parties.

Israeli PM's Jordan Valley remarks spotlight how India moved from decades of pro-Palestine solidarity to one of Israel's closest partnerships in Asia

Netanyahu's Remarkable Tribute

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at a leadership programme in the Jordan Valley on Thursday, called India a "huge power" with "absolutely crazy love for Israel" — even as he acknowledged the Jewish state faces delegitimisation across much of the world.

"We are expanding our alliances and what you are talking about is expanding these alliances to a large space. And the larger space is really our unique relationship with a huge power called India," Netanyahu said. A video of the remarks was released by Israel's Government Press Office.

The words landed with weight. Not because praise between allied leaders is unusual, but because of how far India has travelled to reach this point.

From Nehru to Netanyahu

Post-Independence India was, for decades, among the most vocal champions of Palestinian self-determination. The ideological roots ran deep — Mahatma Gandhi had opposed the imposition of a Jewish state on Arab land as far back as 1938, framing it as an extension of colonial logic. Nehru, scarred by India's own Partition, voted against the UN's Palestine partition plan in 1947 and opposed Israel's admission to the UN in 1949.

India recognised the State of Palestine in 1988 — among the earliest countries to do so. Yasser Arafat enjoyed an almost fraternal relationship with Indian leadership through those years.

Yet even then, the story had a quieter subplot. Israel supplied military assistance to India during the 1962 war with China, the 1965 conflict with Pakistan, and again during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Covert intelligence cooperation reportedly predated formal ties by decades.

1992: The Quiet Opening

The Cold War's collapse forced a rethink. Economic liberalisation under Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao brought India closer to Western markets and, simultaneously, to Israel. Full diplomatic relations were established in 1992 — a turning point that set the stage for everything that followed.

The 1999 Kargil War deepened the bond further. Israel reportedly supplied laser-guided bombs, surveillance drones and critical equipment on short notice, cementing a perception inside India's security establishment that Israel was a reliable partner when it mattered most.

Modi Changes the Optics Entirely

The shift became most visible after 2014. Earlier governments had quietly deepened ties with Israel while keeping the public posture tilted toward Palestine. Narendra Modi changed that calculus openly. In 2017, he became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel — and notably, did not pair the trip with a Palestine stop, as his predecessors had done. He visited Ramallah separately in 2018.

Earlier this year, Modi made a second official visit to Israel, addressing the Knesset to a standing ovation and pledging "friendship, respect and partnership" with Israel at a time when its global standing has been under strain due to the Gaza war.

Ahead of that visit, Modi said India "deeply values its enduring friendship with Israel, built on trust, innovation, and a shared commitment to peace and progress."

Defence Ties: The Backbone

The strategic partnership is not simply rhetorical. India and Israel have significantly strengthened bilateral relations across defence, agriculture, water management, cybersecurity, healthcare, and emerging technologies. According to SIPRI data cited in earlier analyses, India accounted for roughly one-third of Israel's arms exports between 2020 and 2024 — drones, missile systems, radar technology, surveillance equipment.

October 7 and the Tone That Changed

The Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 was another inflection point. Prime Minister Modi was among the first world leaders to characterise it as a "terrorist attack" and express solidarity with Israel. India's subsequent abstentions on UN resolutions calling for humanitarian ceasefires in Gaza drew attention globally — a marked departure from India's earlier posture of careful balance.

New Delhi has continued to formally support the two-state solution and Palestinian statehood. But the diplomatic signals have been unmistakable.

The Balance India Still Tries to Keep

The transformation does not mean India has abandoned its older ties. Gulf nations remain critical partners — for energy imports, Indian diaspora remittances, and investment. India maintains warm relations with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other Arab states, and cannot afford to be seen as wholly aligned with Israeli military policy in the region.

But Netanyahu's "crazy love" remark — offhand as it may have sounded — captures something real. He made the comment precisely while discussing Israel's need to expand international partnerships amid security challenges on multiple fronts. India's name came up first, and it did not come up accidentally.

The arc from Nehru's vote against Israel at the UN to Modi's address to the Knesset spans seven decades. It has been shaped by security pragmatism, ideological evolution, economic interests and geopolitical realism. Whatever India's official position on the conflict in Gaza, that arc tells its own story.