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Why Israeli Support for the Battle with Iran Has Stayed So High
(Times of Israel) Ben Sales - The past 18 days have not been easy here in Israel. As of 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 Hizbullah, with IDF soldiers pushing deeper into Lebanon. Routinely, Israel's hospitals record more than 100 people admitted per day due to injuries - whether from missile attacks themselves or the constant rush to shelter every time a siren sounds. Quiet nights in central Israel feel like an increasingly distant memory, especially for people who need to leave their apartment every time the siren blares. In most of the country, kids have been at home as schools remain shut. Considering all of that, you would think Israelis would no longer support this war - except they do, in spades. Polls show 80% of Israelis support the operation against Iran. Most Israelis see Iran as a pressing, existential threat. "People believe the Iran threat, it's not theoretical," Dahlia Scheindlin, a Ha'aretz columnist, told the Times of Israel. "People see the reality that Iran really is a bad actor in the region....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." "Israelis would like to not be living with permanent war. The question is whether they feel they have that option, and if they feel that they don't have the option because they will be existentially destroyed. They'll just say, 'Yeah, I would love to live in peace, but we have to defend our country and defend our lives.'"