Regretting Gaza Disengagement, Israelis say IDF must keep Gaza, Lebanon, Syria buffer zones – poll

Three-quarters of Israelis back maintaining IDF security zones in the Gaza Strip, southern Lebanon, and southern Syrian.

By World Israel News Staff

A large majority of Israelis believe the country must maintain military buffer zones and a security presence along multiple fronts after the October 7 attack, according to a new poll conducted for the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs (JCFA).

The survey found broad support for Israeli-controlled security arrangements in Gaza, southern Lebanon, the Syrian border area and the Jordan Valley, while showing deep skepticism toward international forces or territorial withdrawals without Israeli security control.

According to the poll, 54% of Israelis said the country’s borders are not secure following the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, while 42% said they are secure.

Another 56% said the security failure that enabled the attack resulted from a combination of factors, rather than one isolated failure.

“The Israeli public has drawn a clear lesson from October 7 and the security developments of recent years: national security cannot be based on hopes, international guarantees, or assumptions that have proven inadequate,” said JCFA President Dan Diker said.

“Most Israelis now understand that defensible borders, strategic depth, buffer zones, and an Israeli security presence in vital areas are indispensable components of national defense.”

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents said Israel should maintain a permanent military buffer zone inside the Gaza Strip, while another 11% supported such a zone as part of a temporary arrangement. In total, 75% of Israelis backed some form of continued buffer zone in the Strip.

The survey also found that 73% of Israelis support an ongoing IDF presence and security zone in southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, compared with just 14% who oppose it.

Sixty percent of Israelis said Israel should maintain control and a security presence in the area seized along the Syrian frontier after the fall of the Assad regime, either by preserving the current situation or expanding the buffer zone to meet future threats.

Turning to Judea and Samaria, 57% said Israel must retain a permanent military presence in the Jordan Valley regardless of any future political agreement, describing it as a non-negotiable security requirement. Only 11% said Israel could relinquish that presence.

Sixty-one percent of Israelis said they would oppose a deal requiring a full withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, while 27% said they would support it.

The vast majority of Israelis rejected security arrangements based on foreign guarantees.

Sixty-five percent of respondents said they do not trust international forces to replace Israel’s military role along the country’s borders.

A plurality (48%) of Israelis now say that the 1993 Oslo Accords, which established the Palestinian Authority, was a strategic mistake, while a majority (56%) say Israel was mistaken to carry out the 2005 Gaza Disengagement, under which the IDF evacuated all Israeli towns in the Gaza Strip and four towns in northern Samaria.

Diker said the results carried a message for foreign governments pressing Israel on postwar arrangements.

“The survey findings reveal a broad consensus that crosses many political lines regarding the need to preserve Israel’s independent defensive capabilities and ensure that the country maintains borders it can defend in an increasingly volatile regional environment,” he said.

“This is an important message both for Israel’s decision-makers and for its international partners.”

The poll was conducted by Lazar Research, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, among a sample of 503 Jewish and Arab Israeli adults.