A new poll found that the vast majority of Israelis say the Hamas attack on southern Israel was caused by a failure in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a smaller majority want Netanyahu to resign once the conflict is over.
In the poll released by the Dialog Center, 86% of the people asked, including 79% of supporters of Netanyahu’s governing coalition, said the surprise attack from Gaza was a failure of the country’s leadership.
The poll also found that 56% of respondents want Netanyahu to resign at the end of the conflict, and 52% also want to see the resignation of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The Hamas attack on October 7 has raised questions about how the Israeli government could not be aware that such a large operation was about to be launched from Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade since 2007 and is under heavy surveillance. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) on Wednesday confirmed reports that said Egypt warned Israel before the attack that something big was coming.
Netanyahu has also come under criticism for his strategy of propping up Hamas to divide Gaza from Palestinian leadership in the West Bank. “Those who want to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state should support the strengthening of Hamas and the transfer of money to Hamas,” Netanyahu said at a Likud party meeting in 2019. “This is part of our strategy, to differentiate between the Palestinians in Gaza and the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).”
Source: AntiWar.
