It will end up even more deeply mired in the conflict that is the main threat to its security
could say we have a very detailed plan,” an Israeli army officer admitted to your correspondent in the chaotic days following Hamas’s brutal assault on southern Israel on October 7th. More than 1,100 people had been killed; some 240 had been dragged back to Gaza as hostages. It was clear from the outset of the war in Gaza, now six months old, that Israel’s two main goals—to eliminate Hamas and to free the hostages—were at odds. It was also clear that invading the territory, in which 2.
At home, the public set aside a year of political acrimony and rallied around the flag. Reservists reported for duty as required, which some had threatened not to do last year at the height of public protests about a controversial judicial overhaul, since shelved. The cross-party war cabinet formed in the wake of the attacks has held together for five months despite deep animosity between its members.
, an economist, as prime minister. He hopes that will show sceptical Western donors that he is serious about reforming the notoriously corrupthas become.PA The Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan think-tank, asks Israelis each month whether they are optimistic about “the future of national security”. Its first wartime survey, in late October, found that 46% of Israeli Jews were hopeful. By March that number had fallen to 41%. Half a year of war has made Israelis feel less safe, not more. “The self-confidence of all of Israel has changed dramatically, and will never be the same as what it was before,” says an army officer.
It is not only Arab opinion that has shifted. Even before the war, young people in the West were less pro-Israel than their elders. A survey in 2022 by the Pew Research Centre, a polling outfit, found that just 41% of Americans aged 18 to 29 had a favourable view of Israel, compared with 69% of over-65s. The war has widened that gulf. A YouGov poll in February found that 20% of Americans over 65, but 39% of 18- to 29-year-olds, consider Israel an apartheid state .
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