Israelis find government's Gaza policy not forceful enough, poll finds

Nearly 60% of Jewish Israelis said they “think” or “are sure” that Israel should not provide relief measures to improve the lives of the Gaza residents.

By GIL HOFFMAN
Updated: OCTOBER 24, 2018 02:24
The damaged house in Beersheba from the rocket attack on Wednesday, October 17, 2018. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The damaged house in Beersheba from the rocket attack on Wednesday, October 17, 2018.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s policies regarding Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip are too soft, 56.2% of Jewish Israelis believe, according to the monthly Peace Index survey of the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University that was released on Tuesday.
The poll found that 38.1% disagree with Education Minister Naftali Bennett’s charge that Liberman’s policies are too soft while 5.7% did not know or declined to comment. Among Israeli Arabs, the numbers were completely different, with only 18.8% deeming Liberman’s policies too soft, 70.3% disagreeing and 10.9% not knowing or not answering.
The survey revealed that the Israeli public would like to see long-term calm on the border with Gaza, with 64% and 80% of Jewish and Arab Israelis respectively supporting signing a long-term cease-fire agreement under international supervision with the Hamas leadership.
Nearly 60% of Jewish Israelis “think” or “are sure” that Israel should not provide relief measures to improve the lives of the Gaza residents. The Arab public is unanimously in favor of Israel implementing such measures.
Jewish and Arab Israelis both agreed when it came to their assessment of their local governments. Ahead of next Tuesday’s municipal elections, only some 17% of both Jewish and Arab Israelis believe that in the municipality in which they reside, there is no corruption at all.
The percentage agreeing with the statement that “there is a very large amount of corruption” in their municipality was 38.6% among Arab and 12.6% among Jewish respondents. The poll found that Jews were much more satisfied with their municipal leaders than Arabs were.
Both sectors said they intend to have high turnout on Election Day, with 83% of Jewish and 71% of Arab Israelis respectively planning to vote. The percentage saying they prefer to elect men over women was much higher among Arabs (39.4%) than among Jews (21%).
A year from the start of the #MeToo campaign, the Israeli public is divided about US president Donald Trump’s statement that “It’s a very scary time for young men.” Among Jews, 44% agreed with Trump while 46% disagreed; likewise, among Arab-Israelis, 44% agreed and 41% disagreed. Analyzing the data by gender revealed that, not surprisingly, the rate of women who disagreed with Trump’s assertion was significantly higher than that of men.
Some 62% of Jewish Israelis and 49% of Arab Israelis support exposing cases of sexual harassment as well as the identity of the harasser in the media and on social networks. Half of Jewish Israelis and 43% of Arab Israelis think that #MeToo will succeed in changing social values.
The survey of 600 Israelis representing a statistical sample of the adult population was conducted from October 16 to 17 and had a margin of error of 4.1%.