Israeli election posters from 2009. Photo: Zev Zamir.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pulling ahead of his main rival, Labor Party head Yitzhak Herzog, according to a new poll on the country’s upcoming elections, Israel’s NRG News said Monday.

In the Knesset Channel survey, 503 people sampled were asked which of the candidates – Likud chief Netanyahu, Labor leader Herzog, Jewish Home party chief and Economic Minister, Naftali Bennett, Israel Our Home party and Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, Hatnua party leader Tzipi Livni, and former Likudnik and Kulanu head, Moshe Kahlon – they would like to see as prime minister.

Netanyahu led with 30 percent of the respondents’ votes; Herzog came in second with 23 percent. Bennett trailed with half that at 11 percent, with Livni and Kahlon receiving four percent each, and Lieberman trailing with 3 percent.

Perhaps the most interesting result was that no less than 21 percent of respondents said that they “do not know” who they would like to see head the next Israeli government.

The latest poll seemingly overturns a Ch. 10 survey held only days earlier which claimed that Netanyahu led Herzog with only a single percentage point: 23 to 22 percent in favor of Netanyahu.

The national elections are scheduled for March 17.