Poll: Israelis split on possible future war

The poll found that 43.1% of Jewish respondents believe there is a high possibility of war with Iran or other forces in the coming months, while 45.7% think that the chances of war are low.

By GIL HOFFMAN
IDF soldiers in training (photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT)
IDF soldiers in training
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT)
The Israeli public is evenly divided over whether there will be an all-out war in the coming months, according to the monthly Peace Index poll of the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University published Tuesday.
The poll found that 43.1% of Jewish respondents believe there is a high possibility of war with Iran or other forces in the coming months, while 45.7% think that the chances of war are low. Among Israeli Arabs, 41.3% believe there is a high chance of war and 52.5% believe the chances are low. The rest did not know or declined to respond.
More than half of the respondents said they believed the home front was prepared for such a war. But only 28.6% of respondents said they had personally taken steps recommended by the Home Front Command to prepare themselves and their families for such a possibility.
Regarding the IDF’s handling of recent protesters on the border with the Gaza Strip, Jewish and Arab respondents were very divided. Among Arabs, 91.9% said too much force was used, 1.8% said the level of force was correct, none said there was not enough force, and 6.3% did not know or did not respond.
Among Jewish Israelis, only 4.5% said there was too much force used in the skirmishes that killed 62 Gazans, including 50 Hamas terrorists. The percentage who said the right amount of force was used was 61.6%, and 28.2% said there was not enough force.
The poll asked whether Israel needed to do more to improve Gazans’ quality of life by bringing in more supplies and increasing freedom of movement. Among Arabs, 97.4% answered yes and among Jews, 43.9%.
Among Israeli Arabs, 61.9% believe the demonstrations on the Gaza border were the result of desperation among Gazans due to their poor quality of life, 2.2% believe the protests were planned by Hamas, 28.9% said both reasons, and 7% did not know or declined to respond.
Among Jewish Israelis, 68.1% blamed the demonstrations on Hamas, 8.2% on the Gazans’ desperation, 19.3% said both reasons, and 4.4% did not know or did not respond to the poll.
The survey was conducted on May 28-30. It included 600 respondents, who constitute a representative national sample of the adult population of Israel aged 18 and over. The reported maximum measurement error for the entire sample is ±4.1% at a confidence level of 95%.