Polls: Israelis unhappy with truce, feel less secure than before Gaza operation

Most Israelis oppose the ceasefire with Hamas and feel less secure than before Operation Protective Edge, polls broadcast on Channel 2 and 10 found Wednesday night.Fifty-four percent oppose the cease-fire and 37% support it, according to a Shiluv Millward Brown poll on Channel 2. The poll found that only 29% believe Israel defeated Hamas and 59% think it did not.The same number, 59%, said they were dissatisfied with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s performance. Satisfaction with Netanyahu fell to just 32%, down from 38% on Monday, 55% last Thursday, and 82% on July 23.Netanyahu fared better in a Midgam poll on Channel 10, which found that 55% were satisfied with him. When asked which side won in Gaza, 32% said Israel, 25% Hamas, 26% called it a tie, and 19% did not know.The Channel 10 poll indicated that a significant portion of the dissatisfaction with Netanyahu comes from him not going far enough in the operation. Seventy- five percent said he should have toppled Hamas.A majority of respondents said war would restart in under a year, and 37% predicted it would happen in less than six months. When asked if they felt more secure personally due to the operation, 60% said they felt less secure and only 19% said more.Despite those numbers, Bayit Yehudi chairman Naftali Bennett and other politicians on the Right said they do not intend to take immediate action to unseat Netanyahu or topple his government.Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel of Bayit Yehudi said it would be inappropriate to take such action after an IDF operation.He said that if the government will fall, it would only be in another year and it would be over matters of religion and state or the state budget.“Polls show we’re the only party rising, so maybe theoretically it would be in our interest to topple the government, but I don’t think we will,” he told Army Radio.“Eighty to ninety percent of the public do not want elections and they are right.”Netanyahu will, however, face a challenge inside his Likud party.The chairman of the Likud central committee, MK Danny Danon, announced on Wednesday that it will convene in two weeks in rocket- stricken Ashkelon to discuss the operation in Gaza.It was unclear on Wednesday whether the prime minister would attend. Danon said the committee would also deal with security policies regarding the challenges posed by Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria.“The Protective Edge war that began with huge support ended with Israel shamed and confused,” he said.Labor chairman Isaac Herzog said he did not expect Netanyahu to take any diplomatic steps following the cease-fire. He hinted that an election was the only chance for a diplomatic deal.“It will be up to the public to decide,” the opposition leader told Army Radio. “Only a revolutionary diplomatic process can guarantee us a better and quieter future. I know it will take time for the public to realize it, but whoever wants to prevent Judea and Samaria from becoming Gaza will have to understand that we need to go toward a diplomatic maneuver.”