Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu casts his vote with his wife Sara during Israel’s parliamentary election in Jerusalem April 9, 2019. Photo: Ariel Schalit/Pool via REUTERS.

As Israel’s March 23 elections approach, polling has tended to show a deadlock between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc of supporters and the “anti-Bibi” bloc of opponents from both the left and right. A new poll, however, seeks to determine instead what kind of government the Israeli people would actually like to see in power.

The survey published by Mako polled voters by presenting them with a list of both likely and outsider candidates to head specific ministries. Voters were also polled along ideological lines in order to determine which governments would be preferable to specific blocs on the left, center, and right.

Among all voters, the leading preference for prime minister was Netanyahu, with 36% support. The runner-up was Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid, who is staunchly opposed to Netanyahu, at 12%. New Hope party leader Gideon Sa’ar and Yamina party leader Naftali Bennett — also strong Netanyahu opponents — tied for third place with 10%.

Unsurprisingly, Netanyahu scored very high among right-wing voters, with an overwhelming 67% preferring him as prime minister. Centrist voters gave a very slight edge to Lapid (17%) over Netanyahu (16%). Left-wing voters preferred Lapid (27%) by a small margin over Labor party leader Meirav Michaeli (24%).

For the always pivotal role of defense minister, voters overall preferred Naftali Bennett (25%), who briefly held the position in 2019-2020. Current Defense Minister Benny Gantz and current Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi tied at second place with 12%.

A much larger percentage of right-wing voters preferred Bennett, with 40% supporting him for the position. Left-wing voters strongly preferred former deputy IDF chief of staff Yair Golan at 32%. Golan is currently a candidate on the Meretz party list. Centrist voters showed a near-tie between three candidates: Ashkenazi (20%), Gantz (19%), and Bennett (18%).

For the position of foreign minister, voters were almost evenly split between four candidates: Sa’ar (15%), Bennett (14%), Lapid (13%), and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni (13%), who is not currently a candidate on the list of any party.

On the left, Livni was the preferred candidate by a huge margin, gaining 41% support with Lapid a distant second at 21%. Sa’ar and Bennett were tied at 17% among right-wing voters, with the same result between Sa’ar and Lapid among centrists.

For the less high-profile ministries, the overall results showed that voters want Yamina’s Ayelet Shaked to return to the role of justice minister, Shas’ Aryeh Deri to remain as interior minister, and Moshe Bar-Siman-Tov to serve as health minister — an important role in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bar-Siman-Tov served as director-general of the Health Ministry during the initial stages of the pandemic, and was instrumental in leading the government response to the crisis.

In another noteworthy result, voters were asked who should serve as president of Israel — an office determined by the Knesset and thus not on the ballot.

Overall, they strongly supported Miriam Peretz for the presidency. Peretz is not a politician, but an educator and winner of the Israel Prize. After losing two sons in combat, she became a personification of strength in the face of loss in the Israeli public imagination, and now regularly gives lectures on overcoming such tragedies.

Peretz won strong support from right-wing and centrist voters, with only left-wing voters preferring a different candidate — the acclaimed Israeli writer David Grossman, who also lost a son in IDF service.