A recent survey of Israeli public opinion found that 90% of Jewish respondents support Israel’s escalation of hostilities against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Asked about the resilience of Israeli society and the Israel Defense Forces, 87% and 79% of the 600 Jews sampled, respectively, said that those entities would “be able to withstand an extended war on two or more fronts.” Only 27% of the 150 Arab Israelis surveyed said this.
The survey, conducted in the last week of September by the Israel Democracy Institute, contained a question that juxtaposed the escalation with the unresolved issue of Israeli hostages in Gaza and the ongoing military campaign against Hamas.
“Was it correct or not correct for Israel to launch its in-depth offensive against Hezbollah last week while the war in Gaza has not yet finished and the hostage issue has not been solved?” respondents were asked.
Ninety-five percent of respondents who self-defined as right-wing answered that the move was correct, compared to 87% and 67% of centrists and left-wingers, respectively, the Institute’s Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research wrote in a summary of the survey published on Tuesday.
“Among Jews, the clear preference is for Israel to increase the intensity of its long-range aerial offensive,” the summary said.
The largest share of Jewish respondents supported a ground invasion (support, 47%; oppose, 41%), while the majority of the 150 Arabs surveyed opposed it (59.5%), the summary also said.
The largest share of Arab respondents, 47%, also said that the escalation was a mistake.
Arab respondents were more concerned about the conflict than Jewish ones. Whereas 83% of Arabs said they were either worried or very worried, only 57% of Jews said this.
