Poll: Nearly 60% of Israelis support return to fighting Hamas in Gaza

JNS Staff

Israel Defense Forces soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, June 21, 2024. Credit: IDF.

Nearly three in five Israelis back the resumption of fighting in the Gaza Strip in the wake of Hamas’s rejection of a U.S. proposal to extend the ceasefire in exchange for the release of more hostages.

According to a survey carried out by Israel’s Direct Polls Institute and published by Channel 14 on Monday night—before the Israel Defense Forces launched a campaign of extensive airstrikes in Gaza—59% of Israelis support the resumption of hostilities.

Some 38% said they opposed it, while 3% of respondents did not express a position.

Direct Polls, which accurately predicted the results of the Jewish state’s most recent general election in 2022, surveyed a representative sample of 506 Israeli adults on March 17. (The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points at a confidence level of 95%, Direct Polls said.)

The IDF announced early on Tuesday morning that it had launched “extensive” strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said the military was acting after Hamas rebuffed several proposals from U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and others.

“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

The goal of the campaign remains to achieve “the objectives of the war as they have been determined by the political echelon, including the release of all of our hostages, the living and the deceased,” the PMO statement added.

Even before Netanyahu ordered the airstrikes, his Likud Party was strengthening in the polls, according to Monday’s Direct Polls survey.

If a vote were to be called now, the Likud Party would secure 34 Knesset mandates out of the parliament’s 120, up two since the previous Direct Polls survey published on March 6 and one more than it won in the general election on Nov. 1, 2022.

Netanyahu’s coalition of right-wing and religious parties would win 64 mandates, up one since the March 6 survey, and the same amount of Knesset mandates it received in the 2022 election, per Direct Polls.

After the Likud Party, Yair Golan’s far-left HaDemokratim received the next most seats (18), followed by the Yisrael Beytenu Party (14), Shas (11), United Torah Judaism and National Unity Party (eight each), Yesh Atid and Otzma Yehudit (six each), and Religious Zionism, Ra’am (the United Arab List) and Hadash-Ta’al (five each).

In a head-to-head matchup for who is best suited for the role of prime minister, Netanyahu defeated National Unity Party’s Benny Gantz by a margin of 47% to 17% (36% of respondents said neither was suited).

When choosing between Netanyahu and Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid, 47% replied that the longtime Likud prime minister was best suited to lead the Jewish state, 20% preferred Lapid, and 33% said neither.

The next national vote is scheduled for 2026.

Education minister threatens to defund Tel Aviv school that urged students to skip class in protest

JNS Staff

“Ze’ev Degani is a criminal,” Kisch said of the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium’s principal.

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Ze’ev Degani, principal of the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium in Tel Aviv, Sept. 4, 2023. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90.

Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch vowed Monday to “immediately” suspend the funding of the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium if the Tel Aviv high school would follow through on threats to cancel class to allow pupils to protest the pending firing of Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar.

“Ze’ev Degani is a criminal,” Kisch said of the school’s headmaster. He noted that Degani’s decision “to shut down class and dispatch students to a political protest is a serious and direct violation of the Compulsory Education Law,” which mandates school attendance until the age of 17.

“The education system is not a free-for-all, and we will not allow schools to become battlegrounds for political conflicts,” continued the minister.

“For this reason, Degani and the Herzliya Gymnasium’s executive board were summoned for an urgent hearing on Wednesday. If the school is indeed shut down, the funding that the Herzliya Gymnasium receives from the education system will be immediately halted,” he added.

“Schools are places for learning, not platforms for political propaganda. Politics will remain with the politicians,” concluded Kisch’s statement.

In a missive sent to his staff earlier on Monday, Degani reportedly wrote that the Jewish state’s democracy was “on the verge of collapse” due to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement he would seek the dismissal of Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Ronen Bar.

“We can no longer remain silent. The prime minister is turning the country into a dictatorship by acting against the law,” said Degani. “On Wednesday, it will be impossible to teach history and math at school.”

Netanyahu summoned Bar for an urgent meeting on Sunday evening, where he informed him that the government would consider his firing later this week due to a lack of confidence and “ongoing distrust.” The Cabinet vote is reportedly scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

In August 2023, Kisch vowed to “deal with” Degani after the Herzliya Gymnasium was found to encourage its students to evade mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Forces.

The far-left Youth Against Dictatorship group, which had been rallying teens to refuse army service, that month took over the school in protest against Netanyahu’s now-largely-shelved judicial reform plans. Degani was said to have officially approved the event before it took place.

Among other speakers, students heard from Saleh Diab, a violent terror supporter from eastern Jerusalem’s Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood.

Diab has been arrested numerous times for attacking Jews, including on suspicion of attacking Shabbat worshippers with an iron rod. In 2014, he served months in prison for aggravated assault on a Jewish neighbor.

Israel, Hamas Signal Readiness for Next Ceasefire Talks as Mediators Push for Progress

Reuters and Algemeiner Staff

Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, March 5, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Al-Basos

Israel and Hamas signaled on Saturday they were preparing for the next phase of ceasefire negotiations, as mediators pushed ahead with talks to extend the fragile 42-day truce that began in January.

Hamas said there were “positive indicators” for the start of the ceasefire’s second-phase talks but did not elaborate.

Israel also said it was preparing for talks. “Israel has accepted the invitation of the mediators backed by the US, and will send a delegation to Doha on Monday in an effort to advance the negotiations,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.

A delegation from Hamas is engaging in ceasefire talks in Cairo with Egyptian mediators who have been helping facilitate the talks along with officials from Qatar. They aim to proceed to the next stage of the deal, which could open the way to ending the war.

“We affirm our readiness to engage in the second-phase negotiations in a way that meets the demands of our people, and we call for intensified efforts to aid the Gaza Strip and lift the blockade on our suffering people,” Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said in a statement.

In a later statement reporting its delegation’s meeting with the head of Egypt’s general intelligence agency, Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, Hamas affirmed the group’s approval of forming a committee of what it described as “national and independent” characters to run Gaza until elections.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi earlier said Cairo had worked in cooperation with Palestinians on creating an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats entrusted with the governance of Gaza after the end of the Israel-Gaza war.

His remarks came during the Arab summit which adopted Egypt’s alternative reconstruction plan for Gaza, as opposed to U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Middle East Riviera” vision.

Even as diplomacy continued, an Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinians in Rafah in southern Gaza on Saturday, medical sources said.

The Israeli military said its aircraft struck a drone that crossed from Israel into southern Gaza and “several suspects” who tried to collect it in what appeared to be a botched smuggling attempt.

The strike came after an Israeli drone strike killed two people in Gaza on Friday. The Israeli military said it attacked a group of suspected terrorists operating near its troops in northern Gaza and planting an explosive device in the ground.

The Gaza ceasefire deal that took effect in January calls for the remaining 59 hostages in Hamas captivity to be freed in a second phase, during which final plans would be negotiated for an end to the war.

The first phase of the ceasefire ended last week. Israel has since imposed a total blockade on all goods entering the enclave, demanding that Hamas free the remaining hostages without beginning the negotiations to end the Gaza war.

Fighting has been halted since January 19 and Hamas has released 33 Israeli hostages and five Thais for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Israeli authorities believe fewer than half of the remaining 59 hostages are still alive.

Foreign Ministry seeks dialogue with three ‘right-wing’ European parties

AMICHAI STEIN, WALLA!

The parties are the National Rally (France), the Sweden Democrats, and Vox (Spain).

Gideon Sa’ar, Foreign Affairs Minister, March 28, 2024. / (photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)

The Foreign Ministry will engage in dialogue with the three main far-right parties in France, Sweden, and Spain, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Monday.

The three parties are France’s National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen, the Sweden Democrats, and the Spanish Vox party.

The decision was made following a series of ministerial discussions, during which it was determined that these parties do not have antisemitic or anti-Israel elements. However, Israel will still refrain from engaging with parties tainted by antisemitism, such as the Austrian Freedom Party.

Discussions began in recent weeks between Foreign Ministry officials and representatives from these parties, marking a 180-degree shift in policy. Israel has consistently avoided engaging with far-right parties due to allegations of and ties to antisemitism.

However, given the rise of these parties in recent years, the Foreign Ministry began deliberations on the matter last year under then-minister Israel Katz. Sa’ar now finalized the decision.

Marine Le Pen, member of parliament and leader of French far-right National Rally (Rassemblement National) party, delivers a speech during a debate on migration at the National Assembly in Paris, France, October 7, 2019. (credit: BENOIT TESSIER/REUTERS)

Classified by Israel as antisemitic

The National Rally had been officially classified by Israel as antisemitic, partly due its former leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who was widely considered antisemitic and infamously referred to gas chambers as a “mere detail of history.”

The rise of the party has elicited mixed reactions from French Jews. Some have migrated more to the center-left parties as a result, while others insist that the current French political climate is unique and requires a different response.

“There are those who argue that the current party leader is different,” said Tzvi Amar, head of the Federation of Jewish Communities in southern France. “She [Le Pen] and other party leaders support Israel, condemn Hamas, and even assist the Jewish community.”

Amar emphasized though that the issue remains controversial.

While the main Jewish organization in France, the CRIF, still does not invite the party to its events, there is a recognition among some French Jews that today’s National Rally openly presents itself as a friend of Israel.

“The community is not unified on this matter,” Amar explained. “There are differing opinions, and some still believe that they are far-right extremists and that Israel should not engage with them.”

Jonathan-Simon Sellem, a French-Israeli journalist, writer, and politician, said the National Rally has significantly evolved in its stance on Israel.

“Since October 7, the party’s support for Israel has been remarkable,” he said. “Its representatives in the National Assembly have consistently stood by Israel, condemned Hamas and Hezbollah, and called for the unconditional release of the hostages. Some lawmakers even wore the yellow pin advocating for the hostages’ release.”

He added that the French community in Israel is generally pleased with this development – not because they necessarily vote for the party – but because they understand what is happening in France.

“Labeling the party or its leaders as ‘persona non grata’ is no longer tenable under these circumstances. Even the renowned Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld has stated that the party is no longer antisemitic – and is far more sympathetic toward Jews than the French far Left.

“Of course, one does not need to agree with everything they seek to implement, but their major role in French politics, along with their strong support for Israel and their firm denunciation of Hamas, compels us to make this initial contact,” he said.