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Are Israeli views shifting on the war in Gaza?
Hugo Bachega asks Israelis how they regard the gathering global opposition to the war and whether it will have a lasting impact on the country’s increasing international isolation.
The World Today
Published 15 September 2025 —
4 minute READ
Image — Israelis shop at an open market in Tel Aviv. Polling in August found that the majority of Israelis want a deal with Hamas and the end of the war in Gaza. Photo: Chris McGrath/Getty Images.
Hugo Bachega
Middle East Correspondent, BBC
One day in late July, as the Israeli government discussed an expansion of military operations in Gaza, a group of people, relatives of the hostages taken by Hamas from southern Israel during the attacks of October 7, 2023, gathered near the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem. Many wore the yellow ribbon that represents the ordeal of the captives and carried placards bearing the faces of those still being held. They urged the authorities to reconsider the plans and repeated demands for a deal with Hamas to release the hostages and end the war.
Many of those families have accused Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, of prolonging the conflict for political purposes. Netanyahu relies on the support of ultranationalist ministers who openly call for Gaza to be settled with Jews. They have threatened to quit his coalition if there is an agreement to end the war, which could lead to the collapse of the government.
Netanyahu has also blocked a state inquiry into the security failures, including his own, that led to the Hamas attacks, while his long-running corruption trial could see him sentenced to jail. He denies the charges.
46%
of the American public support Israel – the lowest proportion in 25 years of polling by Gallup.
Outside Israel, the government’s plans faced strong opposition as many question Israel’s motives for continuing with the war. The hunger crisis in Gaza, which aid agencies and even some of Israel’s closest allies have blamed on Israeli policies, has deepened the country’s isolation. Israel says the claims are exaggerated and based on what it describes as ‘Hamas lies’. Meanwhile, it continues to bar foreign journalists from entering Gaza to report independently.
The families’ demonstration ended after about an hour. Days later, the security cabinet approved plans to expand the war, further straining relations with the rest of the world. A report in the Israel Hayom newspaper, which supports Netanyahu, said the country had become a ‘pariah state’. With attitudes outside the country hardening, what effect, if any, has this increasing global opposition had on the views of Israeli society and the calculations of the government itself?
Growing global outrage
Israel launched the war against Hamas in response to the Hamas attacks that killed about 1,200 people. More than 250 others were taken into Gaza as hostages. Almost two years on, more than 63,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to local health officials. Much of Gaza lies in ruins and, last month, a UN-backed panel of experts confirmed famine in parts of the territory.
António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, called it a ‘man-made crisis’. An increasing number of human rights groups and scholars say Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide, which Israel has strongly rejected.
I think we shouldn’t pay attention to the world. Nations will always look at us negatively.
Shalom, a 73-year-old ultra-orthodox Jew.
The carnage in Gaza and the desperation of its population have fuelled a surge of anti-Israeli sentiment worldwide. According to a Pew Research poll published in June, before the crisis in Gaza escalated, in 20 of 24 countries surveyed, around half of adults or more had an unfavourable view of Israel, including the US. In some places there has also been a rise in antisemitism, including attacks on Jews and Israeli-linked targets, particularly in Europe.
A Gallup survey released in March suggested that the proportion of Americans expressing support for Israel was at the lowest level – 46 per cent – since the company started asking the question 25 years ago. A third of the respondents said they sympathized with the Palestinians, the highest reading ever recorded.
According to Hugh Lovatt, a Middle East expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Israel’s reputation had also worsened in ‘constituencies that had previously been supportive, mostly those on the right’. As an example, he cited discontent within the MAGA movement, which backs Donald Trump. In July, the Financial Times reported that Trump had told a prominent Jewish donor: ‘My people are starting to hate Israel.’ For now, Trump has remained a staunch Israeli ally, vital for a country that receives billions of dollars in US military assistance each year.
Feeling the pressure from voters, countries – including the UK – have pledged to recognize Palestinian statehood, to Israel’s fury, while calls for sanctions, arms embargos and boycotts are intensifying. When I asked Israelis in Jerusalem for their thoughts on how the world viewed their country, opinions followed old dividing lines. Progressives were more inclined to some self-criticism while conservatives appeared to be on the defensive.
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Esther, 31, who identified herself as a religious Jew, said that no matter what Israel did, it would be condemned because ‘everybody likes to hate Israel’. When I pointed out that western countries had historically been strong Israeli supporters, she said it was ‘good’ for politicians to be seen as criticizing Israel.
Shalom, a 73-year-old ultra-orthodox Jew, echoed her sentiment. ‘In Israel,’ he said, ‘when a missile falls by mistake and kills a Palestinian, the whole world says “child murderers”. I think we shouldn’t pay attention to the world. Nations will always look at us negatively.’
By contrast, Yoan, a, 21-year-old secular Jew, said: ‘Many people say to themselves “Oh, the whole world hates us”. It’s the classic antisemitism [accusation]. But I feel like this isn’t really the case because, at the start of the war, there was generally big support for Israel … [Now] I don’t see any tourists here. It feels like we’re becoming a more closed society.’
New generation, old playbook
This dissonance is perhaps not surprising given the government’s reaction to the crisis, which Lovatt described as ‘a well-known playbook’. ‘[It includes] smear[ing] anything that is critical of Israel and the war in Gaza as antisemitic,’ he said. ‘Maybe now, finally, the regularity with which such accusations are being used has blunted their effectiveness.’
The Israeli collective psyche is very much consumed by our own trauma.
Michal Hatuel-Radoshitzly, senior adviser at MIND Israel.
Israeli television ignores the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, while the rhetoric is often aggressive. Critical voices, from inside Israel or abroad, are attacked or silenced. A reckoning, for now, seems elusive, but perceptions appear to be changing.
An increasing number of people have joined protests calling for the end of the war, not only for the release of the hostages but also because of the casualties in Gaza. Many have displayed pictures of Palestinian children killed by the Israeli military. A poll by the Israeli Democracy Institute carried out last month suggested that about two-thirds of the public support a deal with Hamas and the end of the war. The overwhelming majority on the left were in favour of such a deal, while the right was divided.
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Michal Hatuel-Radoshitzly, a senior adviser at MIND Israel, a national security think tank based in Tel Aviv, said Israel was deeply fractured and still ‘under the shadow’ of October 7. ‘The Israeli collective psyche is very much consumed by our own trauma,’ she said. ‘[But] Israelis are very much aware of the negative perception of Israel around the world.’
She also mentioned what appears to be a global generational shift in which younger people tend to have anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian views. ‘I don’t know if they [the Israeli authorities] understand that,’ she said. ‘There’s criticism of Israel all around. Probably the main thing lacking [from the Israeli government] is an overarching strategy of where this is all going to. A political horizon. Because the entire situation seems unsustainable.’
Lovatt, the Middle East expert, said he had ‘no doubt’ that the war in Gaza would influence future policy in the West, as the ‘newer generation comes of political age’. The longer the conflict continued, he told me, ‘the more these tectonic shifts become permanent’.
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