A recent poll of Likud members found that firebrand legislator Tally Gotliv, who entered the current Knesset at the 25th slot on the ruling party’s slate, would come in first in a non-leadership primary to choose its upcoming electoral slate, edging out current Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana at number two.
Over 140,000 Likud members voted in the last primary election to determine the party slate in 2022. Israel is scheduled to hold elections in October 2026, although if the government fails to pass the 2026 budget by the end of March, the elections will be moved up. No date has been announced for the Likud primary.
Gotliv’s pugnacious approach to politics has made her one of the Knesset’s more recognizable backbenchers and may be responsible for turning her into a rising star within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud. She came in ahead of Justice Minister Yariv Levin (No. 11), with whom she has publicly sparred.
Should she ride her popularity to a top spot in Likud following the election, Gotliv told The Times of Israel in September that she could be “a very good justice minister” who would confront the judiciary.
Netanyahu is reportedly concerned about Gotliv’s rise. According to Channel 12, Netanyahu complained to Levin last month that Gotliv is allegedly costing Likud 3-5 Knesset seats in opinion polls for the next Knesset elections, a report denied by the Prime Minister’s Office.
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As reported by the Walla news site, the poll of 1,223 Likud members representing so-called “free votes,” not connected to any voting deals or blocs, was conducted by researchers at Tel Aviv University. The poll has a margin of error of 3.8 percent.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, and other ministers in the Knesset plenum during a vote on a law to overhaul Israel’s judicial selection process, March 27, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Following Ohana on the list are MK Moshe Saada, Deputy Minister Almog Cohen — a member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party who had a falling out with his faction and is widely expected to jump ship to Likud — Defense Minister Israel Katz, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Boaz Bismuth, Energy Minister Eli Cohen, Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, Transportation Minister Miri Regev and Social Equality Minister May Golan.
Asked if he was planning on joining Likud, Almog Cohen declined to give a definitive answer, telling The Times of Israel that “there is no doubt that it warms the heart that the Likud public votes again and again, showing their love for me, but it is my duty to keep my feet on the ground and work hard for the people and the homeland.”
According to Walla, Bismuth’s drop from sixth place in a previous poll is likely due to internal party opposition to his revised Haredi draft exemption bill, which he is currently shepherding through his committee. While the bill proposes continued military service exemptions for full-time yeshiva students, Walla reported that 61 percent of Likud voters polled believe in drafting Haredim and sanctioning evaders.
ועכשיו עם התיעוד:
ח”כ טלי גוטליב לאיש משמר בתי המשפט שהוציא אותה מהדיון: “בהמה”
איש המשמר: “אני עושה את העבודה שלי”
גוטליב: “זו לא העבודה שלך. גם ליודנרט היו” pic.twitter.com/RfYcWeLRCn
— רועי ינובסקי (@Roi_Yanovsky) August 19, 2025
While Gotliv told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that “a poll is just a poll,” warning against making too much out of it, she also framed her improved standing as an endorsement of her approach by the party’s base.
“I can only say that I am grateful for the great trust I receive from the right-wing voters in Likud, who see the justness of my cause, and theirs, reflected in my work in the Knesset and in shifting the discourse toward right-wing governance, and in pursuing this path without apologizing,” she said.
Gotliv is well-known for interrupting Knesset proceedings and verbally lashing out at officials, ranging from fellow legislators to a court security guard she compared to the Holocaust-era Judenrat.
She has been in the news on multiple occasions for disrupting judicial proceedings, including at the High Court of Justice, has been censured for blaming a terror attack on the court’s president, and has called on Washington to impose sanctions on Israel’s attorney general.
She has also generated controversy with her social media posts and confrontational behavior in the Knesset, sharing conspiracy theories and frequently yelling at political opponents and critics of the government — including, at one point, a representative of a bereaved family.
Likud MK Tally Gotliv pictured as the High Court of Justice hears petitions against the firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar in Jerusalem, April 8, 2025 (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)
But while Gotliv’s heated rhetoric has resonated with the Likud base, her standing in the polls will not necessarily translate into electoral success, cautioned pollster Mitchell Barak of Keevoon Research Strategy & Communications.
According to Barak, Likud MKs and ministers have been signing up new members in anticipation of the primaries and, on the day, many Likud members will “take their marching orders” from the various political machines, a system which is “going to favor people that have been in the party longer and have these vote brokers.”
In fact, Gotliv’s current popularity could even be used against her, Barak argued.
“It’s more of a popularity contest at this point, and it can also be a hit list. Because if you’re in the top, if you come out very high and people think that’s not a good thing, they’re going to work to make sure you’re not on the top,” he said.
Speaking with The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity, one of Gotliv’s Likud colleagues in the Knesset agreed that the “polls are irrelevant,” arguing that “they do not take into account the deals.”
“These polls always favor populist MKs and the primaries always favor serious MKs,” the lawmaker said.
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