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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israelis massively backing army's Gaza blitz |
| 2009-01-03 |
| Weary of years of Gaza rocket fire, Israelis are massively backing their army's blitz on Hamas, despite the threat of more casualties and the soaring Palestinian toll. A week into one of Israel's deadliest offensives in the enclave sandwiched between the Jewish state and Egypt, polls show most Israelis support the war, the press is mostly positive and even avowed peaceniks are nodding in approval. A poll published on Friday -- the seventh day of the offensive -- showed that some 95 percent of Israel's Jewish population supports the bombardment of Hamas. Eighty percent of the poll of 800 people backed "Operation Cast Lead" "without reservation," according to the survey published in the Maariv daily. Even the leftist Meretz party, which normally opposes such operations, gave its blessing to the offensive. The support has not been dented by several hundred rockets that Gaza militants have sent into Israel since the start of the offensive -- or the fact that some of the projectiles have reached deeper than ever inside Israeli territory. It has not been hampered by warnings of high Israeli casualties should the army send in troops after the air and naval strikes, nor by threats by Hamas to resume suicide bombings against Israel for the first time in three years. It has neither been hurt by the soaring toll on the other side of the Gaza border -- at least 425 Palestinians killed, at least a quarter of them civilians including three young brothers slain on Friday, and more than 2,200 wounded, according to medics and the United Nations. The main reason behind the widespread support is the years of rocket fire coming from Gaza, observers and Israelis say. |
| Posted by:Fred |