Blinken claims Netanyahu’s handling of Gaza war supported by 90% of Israelis
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken twice claims Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s prosecution of the Gaza war is backed by the vast majority of the Israeli public.
In a pair of recent interviews, Blinken is asked leading questions aimed at coaxing him to admit that Netanyahu has not been an honest interlocutor.
Both times, Blinken seeks to avoid answering the question directly but argues that Netanyahu is representative of the vast majority of Israeli society, which is still traumatized by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught.
“What’s been misunderstood around the world is ascribing to one individual or maybe a small group of individuals the policies that Israel is pursuing that many people don’t like,” Blinken tells CNN.
“I think this is a reflection of 70, 80, 90 percent of Israelis following the trauma of October 7th, and ascribing this to any one individual, I think, is a mistake and actually leads you to maybe draw the wrong conclusions,” Blinken maintains.
“This is where the country is, and the policies that the government’s pursuing are really a reflection of the country, even – even many people who don’t like the prime minister,” he continues.
“What we’ve seen in Israel since October 7th is a reflection not of an individual prime minister, not of individual members of his cabinet, but genuinely a reflection of 70, 75 percent, 80 percent of Israeli society,” Blinken says in a subsequent interview with The New Yorker. “The societal trauma is reflected in its policies and support for those policies.”
It was not expressly clear which policies Blinken was referring to, but repeated polls have demonstrated that nowhere near a majority of Israelis have been satisfied with the government’s prosecution of the war.
Only 22 percent of Israelis expressed trust in the government, according to a Channel 13 poll from last month.
A Channel 12 poll from November found that 64% percent of the public doesn’t trust how Netanyahu’s government is running the country, compared to 30% who do.
Asked how they’d grade Netanyahu’s handling of the war in July, 68% of respondents to a Channel 12 survey gave the premier a bad grade, compared to 28% who gave him a good grade. Asked why the war hadn’t ended yet, 54% said it was because of Netanyahu’s political considerations and 34% said it was due to substantive and operational considerations.
An earlier version of this post referring to Blinken’s claims as “false” has been updated.