The 40-day war with Iran is becoming a political millstone around both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump’s necks — and Israeli public opinion shows that the nation believes the operation has spectacularly failed to deliver on its promises. According to the New York Times, new polling reveals widespread Israeli disillusionment with the conflict and its meager results. The war in Iran and the ongoing conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon have left Israelis despairing over how little was actually accomplished compared to what leaders promised. The scorecard is devastating.
- Regime change in Iran? Senior government and military leaders have been killed, but it is still the same regime.
- Destruction of Iran’s nuclear program? Damaged or delayed, perhaps, but not ended.
- Elimination of Iran’s ballistic missile threat? Reduced, perhaps, but still a threat.
The strategic damage extends beyond military failure, the Times reported. Israel has been reduced to a subordinate position, forced to accept whatever Washington decides. When Israel conducted a furious wave of airstrikes on Beirut on Wednesday that violated the day-old ceasefire, Trump scolded the country — demonstrating Israel’s lack of independent agency, the Times wrote. According to an opinion poll released Sunday by the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, barely a third of Israelis believe that when Israel and the United States disagree, Israel can act on its own judgment. A separate poll from Agam Institute and Hebrew University of Jerusalem found even more damning results: “Three times as many Israelis see the war as a failure than a victory,” the Times reported. Even more striking, 70 percent believe the ceasefire reflects an American concession to Iran, and two-thirds oppose it. The psychological toll is equally severe. “Many Israelis have become pessimistic, fatigued, disillusioned and distrustful of the information that they are receiving,” according to the Agam-Hebrew University survey. Israeli analyst Yaakov Katz, co-founder of the Middle East-America Dialogue, said, “What’s the Israeli story today? It’s a narrative of a country that’s constantly fighting, and presents no alternatives except for more war.”
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