Opinion poll by pro-Israel group shows Israelis wanted to keep hitting the terror group with no ceasefire.
By World Israel News Staff
A new public opinion poll released Wednesday by a pro-Israel organization showed that a large majority of Israelis wanted to keep fighting Hamas last month after the Iran-backed terror group sparked a military conflict by firing a barrage of rockets at Jerusalem.
Conducted by the respected polling company Midgam Research and Consulting on behalf of The Israel Victory Project, the survey of 503 Jewish Israeli respondents included 22 questions in Hebrew or Russian on May 27-31 with the results having a 4.4 % margin of error, Arutz-7 reported.
A majority of respondents, 82%, agreed with the statement that “there can be no appeasing Hamas; only by defeating it unequivocally can we bring this conflict to an end.” Similarly, 70% of respondents agreed with the statement: “There can be no deals with terrorist organizations, only defeat. Israel must use all its military, diplomatic and economic means to crush Hamas’ will to continue fighting.”
Despite the IDF reporting that Israel had dealt a severe blow to Hamas, only 35% of respondents said Israel had “won” the conflict even though 51% thought that Operation Guardian of the Walls was more successful than Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
Only 20% of respondents supported the ceasefire while the large majority of 68% said that the operation ended too early and should have continued “until Hamas’ ability and will to attack Israel was destroyed and the hostages and bodies in Gaza were returned.”
Almost three quarters of the respondents, 74%, agreed with the decision not to send IDF ground troops into the Strip.
Following pressure from the Biden administration to end the operation, 60% felt that Israel’s security interests were more important than the demands of the international community, while only 33% said those demands should be taken into account.
Israelis are also very hawkish on the Hamas commanders responsible for firing rockets at Israeli towns and cities, with 90% supporting or strongly supporting the assassination of Hamas leaders. A large majority of respondents – 76% – want to block monthly donations of tens of millions of dollars in cash to Gaza from Qatar, and 74% are for stopping the transfer of all dual-usage building materials for Gaza reconstruction that in the past have been diverted for use by Hamas.
Run by Middle East Forum founder Daniel Pipes, The Israel Victory Project says it works in the U.S. and Israel “to facilitate a change in the public discourse towards an Israeli victory that aims to encourage Palestinian leadership and society that their best chance at prosperity will come once they accept that Israel is the Jewish state and that the war to eradicate Israel has ended and Israel won.”
Middle East Forum Executive Director Greg Roman said the new Israeli government, expected to be sworn in next week, has a “duty is to institute a new policy towards Hamas.”
“The poll results demonstrate that the Israeli public wants their leaders to stop managing the conflict and begin working to defeat Hamas, disarm it, and return the Israeli captives,” Roman said. “Only through an unequivocal victory that can arrive through economic, military and political means, while standing strongly in the face of international pressure, can the conflict be won and finally ended.”