As global concern mounts over the fallout from the US-Israeli war with Iran, the public of one country remains firmly behind the campaign: Israel.
A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), a leading think tank, found that 93 per cent of Jewish Israelis back the attacks on Iran, the second campaign their country has waged against the Iranian regime in less than a year. Taken with the far smaller ratio of support among Arab citizens of Israel, at 26 per cent, overall national public support stands at 82 per cent.
Another poll from the INSS think tank showed public support at 81 per cent, with 63 per cent believing the war should continue until the Iranian regime falls.
A PBS poll last week found that only 44 per cent of Americans support the conflict.
The massive backing in Israel comes despite Israelis suffering significant hardship at home. Iranian missile strikes have ground much of the economy to a halt, closed airspace and taken the lives of at least 13 people. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has also joined the conflict by firing rockets and drones into northern Israel.
Ten days into the conflict, officials are telling the public to prepare for it to continue for weeks, possibly longer.
“The support of more than 90 per cent is much higher than levels we saw before the war started, so we’re witnessing a big rally round the flag,” said Israeli pollster Dahlia Scheindlin.
“Having said that, everyone’s nerves are frayed because of the incoming rocket fire, which is very destructive. People haven’t slept enough and the situation is scary.
“I wouldn’t say people are habituated to the war but it is less scary than June last year, because the number of missiles is fewer, as is the destruction.”
The 12-day war in June 2025 ended with the US bombing Iranian nuclear sites after a heavy Israeli aerial campaign. Iran in turn fired salvoes of ballistic missiles at Israel, killing at least 28 people.
Iran has long publicly threatened Israel and supported proxy groups across the Middle East that are also deeply hostile to the state, including Palestinian militant group Hamas, which launched the October 7 attacks that sparked the war on Gaza. Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes are also a major concern for Israel, as well as international allies.
According to the IDI poll, 64 per cent of all Israelis trust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the operation, and 74 per cent of Jewish Israelis. Majority approval is a boost for Mr Netanyahu, who, despite clawing back some ground since the October 7, 2023 attacks, has been trailing in polls.
Ms Scheindlin said it is too early to assess how the war will affect the Prime Minister’s popularity. “Support could rise like it did in June, which was very little, or, perhaps because the [current] operation is so big, it could lead to some real change for him in either direction.”
Much of Israel’s opposition, which had been mounting ineffective verbal attacks against the Prime Minister before the war, has swung towards support for the war. The few criticisms they have levelled against the government relate to controversial policies it is trying to advance under the cover of the fighting and disputes about managing the home front.
On Saturday, opposition Leader Yair Lapid, of the centrist Yesh Atid party, said he supported the bombing of Iranian energy infrastructure, a policy even hawkish US supporters of the war have discouraged.
“Israel must destroy all of Iran's oilfields and energy industry on Kharg Island; that is what will cripple Iran's economy and topple the regime,” Mr Lapid wrote on X.
Ms Scheindlin said most of Israel’s opposition have “given up trying” to distinguish themselves during the war. “Strategically, there is no way to do it, because the Jewish public is so united across the board over it. There’s no natural constituency that disagrees with Netanyahu about the war that the opposition could pick up.”
Jewish parties further to the left of Yesh Atid have expressed slight reservations about the war’s effect on Israel’s future, with Arab parties being far more strident.
At the outbreak of the conflict, Naama Lazimi, a Knesset member for left-wing Democrats party, wrote on X: “How, less than a year after the war with Iran, when we were told that every threat to Israel had been removed, and the war was described as a total victory − how are we back at war again without anybody in the political echelon saying a word to us about this contradiction?”
Ayman Odeh, an Arab member of Knesset, wrote in left-wing newspaper Haaretz on Monday: “Although we are no longer in 1984 but in 2026, George Orwell's words are more relevant than ever. For 'war is not meant to be won; it is meant to be continuous', he wrote. Orwell identified a profound political phenomenon: a state of perpetual war is not a means against an external enemy; it is primarily a tool for shaping internal consciousness.”
