Israeli media reported this Saturday of significant increase in the hopelessness and pessimism of the Israeli people towards the future of the regime according to findings of a new survey.
According to the results of a new poll from inside Israel, the people of Israel are more pessimistic than ever about the future of their country due to the worsening security situation and the deep gap between secular and religious groups in the government, which is widening day by day.
The never-ending attack on Gaza, along with other factors, has greatly affected the general level of public optimism about Israel’s future. Compared to data collected less than six months ago, there has been a significant drop in the level of public optimism – from 48 percent to 37 percent – about Israel’s future.
This issue has caused a greater percentage of Israelis to think of leaving Israel forever. According to a previous survey, before the Gaza war and mainly because of Netanyahu’s efforts to reduce the powers of the regime’s Supreme Court, about 28 percent of Israelis intended to permanently leave Israel and live in other countries. But this figure has now reached more than 35 percent.
Israel has reached none of its goals in Gaza war!
A large part of this growing hopelessness among Israel people emanates from the fact that their government has not been able to reach none of the goals it had counted in the early days of the conflict.
Times of Israel has mentioned six strategic goals that the Netanyahu government has introduced since October 7;
- “Bring the hostages home.”
- “Topple Hamas rule, demilitarize the Gaza Strip and gain Israeli security control [over Gaza].”
- Alongside that Israeli security control, “create an international civilian governance mechanism for Gaza, including American, European, Arab and Palestinian elements — which will also serve as a basis for a future alternative that is not Hamas and is not [Palestinian Authority President] Abbas.”
- “Return residents of the north [who were evacuated due to Hezbollah attacks] to their homes by September 1, and rehabilitate the western Negev [adjacent to Gaza, targeted by Hamas on October 7].”
- “Advance normalization with Saudi Arabia as part of a comprehensive process to create an alliance with the free world and the West against Iran and its allies.”
- “Adopt a framework for [military/national] service under which all Israelis will serve the state and contribute to the national effort.”
As of today, however, the far-right government in Israel hasn’t been able to even partially materialize these goals, let alone fulfilling them. Moreover, the political division inside the government over Netanyahu’s lack of a post-war Gaza plan has added fuel to the already huge fire of discontent, pessimism, and hopelessness among Israel people, with no meaningful change of the situation in the horizon anytime soon.
Just to give an example of this growing political division inside Israel, it was this Saturday night that war cabinet minister Benny Gantz threatened to resign unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sets out a post-war plan for the Gaza Strip.
Gantz set an 8 June deadline for a plan to end Hamas rule in Gaza and establish a multinational civilian administration for the territory. “If you put the national over personal, you will find in us partners in the struggle. But if you choose the path of fanatics and lead the entire nation to the abyss, we will be forced to quit the government,” he said.
