A little under two-thirds—or 61% of Israelis—rate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the military campaign against Iran as “excellent,” according to a Channel 14 poll published on Tuesday.
Another 19% said the premier’s prosecution of the war was “good,” while 20% said it was either “not good” or “poor.”
Three-quarters of the respondents in the representative sample of 476 Israelis interviewed on Monday said Jerusalem should topple the Iranian regime. Asked whether Israel should limit its campaign to targeting Iran’s nuclear sites and stop short of overthrowing the mullahs, 16% supported such a limited campaign, and another 9% were undecided.
Meanwhile, asked whether their opinion of Netanyahu had changed as a result of the conflict with Iran, 37% said it had improved, 59% said it had not changed, and 4% said it had worsened.
The poll’s margin of error was 4.7%.
In a separate survey conducted Sunday for Channel 14 among 613 respondents, 54% said Netanyahu was the most suitable candidate to serve as prime minister. Naftali Bennett followed with 24%, while Avigdor Lieberman garnered 9%. Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz trailed with 8% and 5%, respectively.
In a poll conducted for Channel 14 in May, 50% of the 589 respondents said Netanyahu was their favorite to serve as prime minister, compared to 19% who preferred opposition leader Yair Lapid and 31% who said they supported neither.
In the poll from Sunday, the right-wing bloc under Netanyahu was projected to win 65 out of 120 Knesset seats if former prime minister Naftali Bennett does not run, and 63 if he does.
Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran on June 13 has thus far been widely regarded as a military success, resulting in rapid air superiority and substantial damage to the Iranian nuclear program, ballistic arsenal and military leadership.
The hundreds of rockets launched by Iran into Israel have resulted so far in 24 civilian deaths and no substantial damage to Israel’s military capabilities.
On Tuesday, Israel said it had killed Maj. Gen. Ali Shadmani, whom it identified as Iran’s “wartime chief of staff” and most senior military commander. He had replaced Maj. Gen. Gholam Ali Rashid, who was killed on Friday in Israel’s opening strikes against Iran.