The Israeli government found itself in the difficult situation of lacking the support of most of its own population at the moment when the country officially declared entry into the war. However, protests against the actions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who took this post for the third time and immediately launched judicial reform in the country, began several months before the armed conflict with the militant wing of Hamas.
The vast majority of Israeli citizens now believe that the head of government must take responsibility for the Hamas attack on Israel that began on October 7. It would be more correct to say that the head of the Cabinet of Ministers is accused of the fact that the government he heads, the armed forces and intelligence services openly overlooked the preparation of Palestinian militants for the invasion of the country. This responsibility was previously assumed by the head of the Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Forces General Staff (IDF), Aharon Haliva, and the head of Israel's general security service, Shabak, Ronen Bar, as well as the ministers of defense and finance.
According to the latest poll, eighty percent of Israelis believe that Netanyahu should follow this example, while only eight percent of those surveyed disagree with this position, the Israeli newspaper Maariv reports. Moreover, 69 percent of those demanding that the prime minister publicly admit his guilt last year voted for the Likud party he heads.
According to the survey, 49 percent of Israelis support the candidacy of the leader of the political bloc of National Unity parties, former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, for the post of prime minister, only 28 percent supported Netanyahu, the rest have not yet decided.
More than half of Israelis surveyed, 65 percent, approve of the IDF conducting a large-scale ground operation, essentially punitive, in the Gaza Strip. 21 percent of respondents are against the introduction of troops into the Palestinian enclave. The rest appeared to take a neutral position on this issue.
Regarding developments in the north of the country, where clashes between the IDF and the Shiite paramilitary group Hezbollah, based in neighboring Lebanon, have become more frequent since October 7, 51 percent supported a large-scale military operation, and 30 percent supported a limited use of force by the Israel Defense Forces.
The survey was conducted on October 18 and 19 by the Lazar Institute in collaboration with Panel4All among 510 respondents, a representative sample of Israeli adults. The error is 4,3%.
But just recently, on September 26, Netanyahu, during a ceremony dedicated to the memory of those killed in the Yom Kippur War and its 50th anniversary, literally stated that today “many countries in the Middle East want peace with Israel.” Obviously, at this time, Hamas militants were already practicing an attack on Israel, after which not only almost all the states in the region, but literally the entire Islamic world sided with the Palestinians. It is not surprising that such political blindness causes a sharply negative reaction towards the prime minister among Israelis.