More than 80% of Israeli Jews believe that the suffering of Gazan civilians should only be taken into account to a small extent in the context of the war to demolish Hamas, while a large majority fear that more than 100 Israeli hostages held in Gaza will not be saved, according to a poll published by the Israel Democracy Institute on Tuesday.
In complete opposition, 83% of Israeli Arabs believe the Gazans should be taken into account to a large extent.
Many hostages have reportedly died in captivity amid reports of ill-treatment of those who are still alive. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been unable to visit them and the poll indicated a large majority are pessimistic concerning their fate.
Meanwhile, a whopping 91% of Jews believe that the IDF is making an effort to follow international laws in its fighting, as opposed to only 24% of Arabs who believe the same. Two-thirds of Arabs believe that the IDF isn’t trying at all.
Anti-Israel demonstrations are antisemitic, Israelis say
Since October 7, there have been many protests across the world accusing Israel of committing war crimes and even genocide in Gaza.
Respondents were asked whether these accusations were due to antisemitism and hatred of Israel or because of the large number of civilian casualties, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, and the extent of property destruction in Gaza. Just under two-thirds of Jews put it down to antisemitism, while 52% of Arabs said it was the latter. The opinion of the other 48% was not included in the poll.
Another possible reason for the anti-Israel opinions could be the different public relations campaigns waged by Israel and Hamas. While the latter is known to have a very active (and not entirely truthful) PR campaign, Israel scored low in the poll in this respect, with 72% of Jews and almost 80% of Arabs saying that Israel’s PR is poor or so-so.
PR aside, Israel set two main goals in the war: To destroy Hamas and to bring home the hostages. About two-thirds of respondents think the former is possible, while only 35% think the goal of freeing the hostages will be achieved.
Does Israel have a clear plan for Gaza? Israelis think not
Almost two-thirds of Israelis do not believe that Israel has a clear plan for the Gaza Strip after the war.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel won’t resettle in Gaza and that the Palestinian Authority will not be given control, neither “Hamas-stan nor Fatah-stan”, Israelis have yet to be presented with any alternative plans.
That might have to wait until after the elections. The survey shows that 69% want fresh elections after the war, despite the present government being barely a year old.
Voters of the opposition Islamist party, Ra’am, are most interested in new elections, at 97%, while least support, 29%, came from voters for the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party which is in the present government.
Almost half of Likud voters also believed that elections should be held after the war despite a drastic decline of the Likud in polls since the beginning of the war, from 32 seats in last year’s election to 18 in the latest poll published by N12 on Monday.
The Religious Zionist Party, with eight seats in the present government, would not cross the threshold according to Monday’s poll; nevertheless, the poll indicated that almost half its voters support elections after the war.