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Vast Majority of American Voters Back Israel in War Again Hamas, New Poll Reveals
IDF soldiers traveling in a military vehicle along the Israel-Gaza border. Photo: Reuters/Amir Cohen
The vast bulk of American voters back Israel in its bid to oust Hamas from Gaza, with clear majorities expressing support for Israel’s ongoing military operations alongside opposition to a ceasefire that does not involve the release of more than 100 hostages still held captive by the terrorist group, according to a new Harvard-Harris poll released this week.
Asked whether they back Israel or Hamas more in the current conflict, 82 percent of voters chose Israel. A further 68 percent agreed that Israel was trying to avoid inflicting civilian casualties in Gaza as it seeks to eradicate Hamas from the territory.
Asked whether a ceasefire should be put in place, 68 percent of the respondents said that such a move should be conditional on the release of the remainder of the hostages.
On the question of Israel’s military operation, 67 percent said they supported a continuing ground invasion of Gaza even when it was pointed out that they might oppose it because “1.2 million civilians have taken shelter there and will be under significant risk of harm if Israel pushes forward.”
A heavy majority of respondents — 78 percent — agreed that Hamas needed to be removed from governing Gaza. Asked about who should administer the territory after the war, 34 percent answered Israel, while 39 percent expressed support for a new authority created by Arab states. Only 28 percent believed that the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) should govern in a post-war scenario.
The poll also examined voter attitudes towards the wider region, with 80 percent agreeing that US forces in the Middle East are facing attacks from local terrorist groups. US President Joe Biden’s policy towards Iran has also attracted significant criticism, with 54 percent answering that the US response to attacks launched by Iranian-backed terrorist organizations in Yemen, Syria and Iraq had been “too weak.” Pressed further on whether Biden’s Iran policy had been “successful,” 61 percent answered negatively.
The poll results are likely to cheer Israeli leaders and Jewish communities in the US amid a major spike in antisemitism and visceral attacks, especially on college campuses and on social media, on the Jewish state’s right to exist in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to the poll in a riposte on Tuesday to Biden’s claim in a TV interview that Israel is going to lose support globally because of its “incredibly conservative government.”
“We have significant support in this area,” Netanyahu said. “This gives us another source of strength to continue our war against Hamas until total victory.”
While concern has been regularly voiced since Oct. 7 about growing hostility to Israel among younger voters, the Harvard-Harris poll demonstrated solid levels of support among these demographics, if not quite as concentrated as among older voters.
Among 18-24 year olds, support for Israel stood at 72 percent, and at 66 percent among voters aged 25-34. More than 90 percent of voters over 55 declared their support for Israel.
However, a majority of 18-24 year olds — 53 percent — expressed backing for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza irrespective of whether the hostages are released, while the majority of older voters remained opposed. Among the over 55s, more than 80 percent said they were opposed to a ceasefire absent the release of the hostages.
On whether Israel’s ground invasion should continue, 57 percent of voters in the 18-24 and 25-34 age groups were in favor.
The Harvard-Harris poll was conducted on Feb. 21-22 with a survey of 2,022 registered voters.
The post Vast Majority of American Voters Back Israel in War Again Hamas, New Poll Reveals first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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