As world seeks war’s end, Israelis hold out for full victory

Follow our live coverage here.

JERUSALEM – Every day, as energy prices rise, flights are cancelled and death and destruction fill screens, people across the world ask when the Iran war – widely viewed as poorly planned, unwinnable and a peril to global well-being – will stop.

Not in Israel, where the public is strongly behind seeing the war through until Iran can’t threaten the country with ballistic missiles, a nuclear weapon or regional proxies. 

“Unlike most of the world, Israelis are living under a constant threat of ballistic missiles from a regime sworn to our destruction,” opposition leader Yair Lapid told Bloomberg when asked about the gap in public opinion. 

“We know the Iranians better than anyone. Without a clear victory, six or 12 months from now we’ll find ourselves in another round, with the Strait of Hormuz closed and the possibility of a nuclear weapon threatening Israel and all the countries of the Gulf.”

Coming from a centre-left politician associated with secular, liberal Tel Aviv, Mr Lapid’s remarks reflect how broadly popular the war is across Israeli society, regardless of political affiliation.

In its first days, polls showed 80 per cent of Israelis in favour. Those numbers have softened slightly to 75 per cent.

On the question of whether the war should end now, a Channel 13 poll showed this week that 59 per cent of the public believed it should continue, while 29 per cent said it should not. 

Across the region, more than 4,500 people have been killed in the conflict, according to governments and non-government agencies.

Around three-quarters of the fatalities have been in Iran, while almost 1,100 people have died in Lebanon in a parallel war that has displaced more than a million people.

Several thousand drones and missiles have been fired by Iran at the six Gulf Arab states and Jordan, while Iranian missiles have been intercepted in Turkish airspace.

In Israel, everyday life is on pause.

All day and night, people rush into bomb shelters to escape the ballistic missiles and cluster bombs flying in from Iran.

Property has been destroyed across the country, and some two dozen Israelis have been killed.

School has been cancelled for four weeks, many businesses are shuttered and some 100,000 military reservists have been called up to help with air defence, combat flying, intelligence work and to fight Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Many are fresh off extended conscriptions in Gaza.

Israel’s economy was rattled by war even before the joint US-Israel operation against Iran started on Feb 28.

The country lost 8.6 per cent of its annual gross domestic product, or 177 billion shekels (S$72.89 billion), as a result of fighting Hamas in Gaza and other Iranian proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

To cover military expenses, the Cabinet in March added US$13 billion (S$16.69 billion) to the state budget, leaving less for education, health and other public services.

Meanwhile, Central Bank Governor Amir Yaron says growth forecasts are dropping and debt-to-GDP ratios rising. 

Still, in casual conversations – in the market, at the doctor’s office – Israelis agree that the war must continue until the regime in Tehran has been so weakened that it will no longer pose a threat to Israel.

The larger fear is not that the war will continue, but that US President Donald Trump will end it prematurely, squandering what some see as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to assure Israel’s security through defanging Iran and reducing its regional power.

If the war were to end prematurely, the concern is that the cycle of attacks will begin again.

Part of the public support may come down to the fact that Israel is insulated in some ways from the conflict.

It barely imports any oil, is a net gas exporter, and its financial assets have held up during wartime.

The Tel Aviv stock market is up 4 per cent in US dollars month-to-date and is among world’s top 10 performers for that period. The shekel is also up for the month.

The war has also bolstered the prospects of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is up for re-election with a vote due by October.

He remains the most popular leader and his Likud party the biggest winner in surveys, even though his coalition falls short of a majority.

Ms Tamar Hermann, who runs polling for the Israel Democracy Institute, said whatever else may be driving support for the war, the real issue is the sense of mortal threat posed by Iran. 

“For a long time, when there was talk about an Iranian ring of fire around us from Hamas and Hezbollah, I viewed it as propaganda,” she said. “Then in 2024 I was at an international conference and Iranian officials there openly stated their goal is to eliminate Israel through that ring of fire.” 

“Especially since the Oct 7 attack by Hamas, many people around me who aren’t warmongers feel that if this operation is done right, it could eliminate a very serious threat to our short- and long-term existence. That’s why the support is so solid.” BLOOMBERG