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.”

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After ripping Trump’s peace plan in the Wall Street Journal last month, Daniel Pipes changed course on Twitter, citing a discussion with U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

By World Israel News Staff

Daniel Pipes, one of the world’s foremost experts on Middle East history and the geopolitical status quo in the region, penned a damning assessment of U.S. President Donald Trump’s as-yet unreleased Israel-Palestinian peace plan. The piece was published in the Wall Street Journal last month.

The primary concerns Pipes raised in the WSJ op-ed focused on Trump’s professed “neutrality,” his “suspicion of Netanyahu,” and his expectations that Israel will “make larger concessions,” which taken together “signal a potential crisis in U.S.-Israel relations,” he concluded.

Pipes specifically red-flagged Trump’s comments that he is “committed to getting the Palestinians the best possible deal” and that “Israel would make real concessions” under any agreement. Pipes also referenced Trump’s remarks to French President Emmanuel Macron that he could be “tough” on Netanyahu.

In addition to statements by the president himself, Pipes also referenced comments by Trump’s Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt that “each side will find things in this plan that they don’t like” and remarks by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley that “the Palestinians would benefit more, and the Israelis would risk more” by accepting Trump’s peace deal.

About a week after the WSJ op-ed ran, Pipes posted a far more optimistic prognosis on Twitter following a discussion with U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

Pipes quoted Friedman’s pronouncement that Trump is the “most pro-Israel president ever,” concluding, “so far, the record confirms his observation.”

Outlining Trump’s “positive record” in the tweet, Pipes referred to the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement, the Jerusalem embassy move, and massive cuts in aid to Palestinian agencies such as UNRWA, which have been identified as impediments to the peace process.

Pipes also cited the U.S. defense of Israel at the U.N. and its encouragement of warming ties between Arab nations and the Jewish state.

In summary, he referred to Trump’s approach as “buck[ing] convention” and making “overdue changes.”

While Pipes concluded by referring to his “known concerns” about Trump’s approach to Mideast peace, the tweet sounded a completely different tone than the WSJ piece, which warned against the American pro-Israel community “blithely but wrongly trust[ing] Mr. Trump as one of their own.”

Pipes has remained a vocal critic of Trump and opposed his nomination to serve as the Republican candidate in the 2016 U.S. election.

As president of the Middle East Forum, an American conservative think tank, Pipes is recognized as a leading expert on the Arab-Israeli conflict, radical Islam and U.S. foreign policy. In addition to writing 16 books and articles in over 100 newspapers, Pipes served in five administrations in the U.S. between 1982 and 2005, including two presidentially-appointed positions.

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