{"id":344911,"date":"2026-03-18T03:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T03:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/344911\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T03:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T03:32:12","slug":"a-deluxe-war-why-israeli-support-for-the-battle-with-iran-has-stayed-so-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/344911\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A deluxe war’: Why Israeli support for the battle with Iran has stayed so high"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, the psychoanalyst Yoram Yovell made waves when he went on TV and, in the middle of a conversation about the Iran war, accused part of the country of being \u201ca bunch of spoiled prima donnas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything like this,\u201d he said on Channel 12. \u201cGentlemen, ladies, the people of Israel, you need to kiss the Air Force\u2019s feet. You need to wake up, to say thank you. There\u2019s never been a war like this. There\u2019s never been an army like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on, \u201cThe Air Force, the pilots, and the Home Front Command are giving you a deluxe war. Say thank you, for God\u2019s sake!\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re wondering why, going on three weeks into the war with Iran, the vast majority of Israelis still support it, there\u2019s your answer.<\/p>\n

The past 18 days have not been easy here in Israel. As of early Wednesday morning, 14 people have been killed in Israel from Iranian missile attacks. The north is under a constant barrage of rockets and drones from Hezbollah, with IDF soldiers pushing deeper into Lebanon. Routinely, Israel\u2019s hospitals record more than 100 people admitted per day due to injuries from the fighting \u2014 whether from missile attacks themselves or the constant rush to shelter every time a siren sounds.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of bomb sirens: Quiet nights in central Israel, where the population is concentrated, feel like an increasingly distant memory, especially for people who need to leave their apartment every time the alarm blares. During the writing of this analysis alone, two sirens went off in Tel Aviv. It was at complaints about the sirens that Yovell aimed his rebuke.<\/p>\n

In most of the country, parents have had almost three trying weeks at home with their kids as workplaces stay open but schools remain shuttered, with the two-week Passover break around the corner.<\/p>\n

And this is all after, not nine months ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that the last Iran war in June was a \u201chistoric victory\u201d that would \u201cabide for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering all of that, you could be forgiven for thinking Israelis would no longer support this war \u2014 except they do, in spades.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tAnti-missile batteries fire interception missiles toward incoming ballistic missiles launched from Iran, as seen over Tel Aviv, March 16, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

High levels of resilience to fight an \u2018existential danger\u2019<\/p>\n

A survey by the Israel Democracy Institute taken on the war\u2019s third and fourth day found that 82 percent of Israelis overall, including 93% of Jewish Israelis, support the US-Israeli operation against Iran. In the IDI\u2019s second survey, taken a week or so later, the numbers were 81% and 92.5%, respectively. In both polls, about a quarter of Arab Israelis conveyed support.<\/p>\n

Surveys by the Institute for National Security Studies likewise show overall support holding firm. Its first poll, released on March 3, found that 81% of Israelis backed the operation. In a second poll released on Tuesday, the number was 78.5%.<\/p>\n

All of the shifts, in both the IDI and INSS polls, were within the margin of error. In other words, it\u2019s reasonable to say support for the war has basically not budged at all.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tTamar Hermann, senior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and academic director of the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion. (Courtesy of the Israel Democracy Institute)<\/p>\n

Why is that? According to pollsters, it\u2019s because of what Yovell said. Most Israelis see Iran as a pressing, existential threat. And to defeat it, all they\u2019ve been asked to endure is a \u201cdeluxe war\u201d where the risk of casualty is low, and most, if not all, of life can continue as normal.<\/p>\n

The latest IDI survey found that 79% of Jews feel somewhat or very protected from Iran\u2019s attacks. Among Arabs, the number was 15%.<\/p>\n

\u201cAltogether, look, the economic situation is good overall, and there\u2019s a support system \u2014 now there\u2019s the whole issue of [government-backed] unpaid leave, and so on,\u201d Tamar Hermann, academic director of IDI\u2019s Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research, told The Times of Israel. \u201cThe medical system is working, only the educational system is not. But stores are full of food. Public transit is working.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added at another point, \u201cWhoever really thinks Iran is an existential danger sees this as an action that has strategic justification, right? This is a public whose resilience to these things is very high.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tIllustrative: This image provided by Sepahnews of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on February 16, 2026, shows troops standing at attention during the IRGC\u2019s drill in the Persian Gulf. (Sepahnews via AP)<\/p>\n

Something else that sets this war apart from some others Israelis have fought since October 7, 2023, is that in the case of Iran, most Israelis appear to trust the government led by Netanyahu, who has dedicated his career to warning of the threats posed by Iran.<\/p>\n

The INSS survey found that more than 60% of coalition and opposition voters \u201cbelieve the political leadership is managing the campaign with security interests as the top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople believe the Iran threat, it\u2019s not theoretical, it\u2019s not just his brainwashing,\u201d Dahlia Scheindlin, a pollster, political analyst and Haaretz columnist, told The Times of Israel. \u201cMessaging over years only takes you so far, I think. People see the reality that Iran really is a bad actor in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, the two and a half years since October 7, 2023, may have accustomed Israelis to life amid sirens. The continued high level of support, said Scheindlin, isn\u2019t surprising because the first couple weeks of a war often come with a \u201crallying effect\u201d that leads people to back their country in wartime.<\/p>\n

Whoever really thinks Iran is an existential danger sees this as an action that has strategic justification, right? This is a public whose resilience to these things is very high.<\/p>\n

Hermann also said the sky-high rates of support among Jews may be due to social desirability bias, or the idea that you answer survey questions in ways you believe are socially acceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Israelis have really habituated themselves to long wars at this point,\u201d Scheindlin said. \u201cAnd I think also, you know, the buildup to this war has been years and years of telling Israelis that this is a real huge, game-changing kind of effort that has to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israelis believe that effort must be undertaken, Hermann said, even if they don\u2019t necessarily think Iran\u2019s regime will fall or that all of its threats will be indelibly vanquished. Only 11% of respondents to the INSS poll, for example, think the regime will topple.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if you say it\u2019s impossible to achieve now, that doesn\u2019t mean you won\u2019t be able to achieve it [in the future] if you make progress in the operation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tSecurity and rescue forces at a house damaged in an Iranian missile attack in Shoham, March 16, 2026 (Yossi Aloni\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

What could cause support to decline?<\/p>\n

What could cause the support to flag? In short, Hermann said, if the conditions that have made the war extremely popular and kept Israelis relatively safe were to change. Both she and Scheindlin pointed to the joint combat between Israel and the US as a reason many Israelis back the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf many will get killed, if there\u2019s going to be a lot of damage, if the United States will pull out and Netanyahu will go on, that could all certainly bring this down,\u201d Hermann said.<\/p>\n

Scheindlin pointed to indications in the second IDI survey that support for the war has fallen, ever so slightly. The percentage of Jews who strongly support the war has dipped from 74% to 68%. Among the sliver of Jewish Israelis who identify as left-wing, support has declined from 76% to 68%.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPollster Dahlia Scheindlin. (Oren Ziv)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit notable to me that after just two weeks of what could be a very long war, we\u2019re seeing an indication of a mild decline,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added later, \u201cThe longer a war goes on, in general, the less the public supports it. And so if you think about who\u2019s gonna go first in terms of losing support, it\u2019s probably the left the longer it goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n

But so far, Hermann noted, there hasn\u2019t been much political opposition to the war, despite the sharp divides between Netanyahu and his critics. \u201cThe internal political issue hasn\u2019t entered into this arena,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Israelis will want to be through with the fighting. But Scheindlin said that many believe that peacetime, for now, is simply out of the question.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t need data to know that Israelis would like to not be living with permanent war,\u201d she said. \u201cThe question is whether they feel they have that option, and if they feel that they don\u2019t have the option because they will be existentially destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tIsraelis take cover at bomb shelter in Jerusalem as a siren sounds warning of incoming ballistic missiles fired from Iran toward Israel, March 11, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cThey\u2019ll just say, \u2018Yeah, I mean, I would love to live in peace, but we have to defend our country and defend our lives.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, the psychoanalyst Yoram Yovell made waves when he went on TV and, in the middle of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-344911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}