What Middle Easterners Really Think about the Israel-Palestinian Conflict

Yesterday, Benjamin Netanyahu appeared at a conference in Warsaw alongside representatives of several Arab states—a clear sign of the improving relations between Israel and its former enemies. But do Arab citizens approve of their governments’ increasing cooperation with Jerusalem? David Pollock shows, based on a extensive polling data, that a surprising number do. In the same discussion, the pollsters Nader Said and Tamar Hermann comment on, respectively, Palestinian and Israeli public opinion. Said notes that a majority of Palestinians in Gaza oppose the March of Return riots, while nearly half of those in the West Bank oppose terrorist attacks on Israelis. For Hermann, the big news is the collapse of the Israeli left. (Video, 91 minutes. Written summaries are available at the link below.)

 

Read more at Washington Institute for Near East Policy

More about: Israel & Zionism, Israel-Arab relations, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Middle East, Palestinian public opinion

Israel Just Sent Iran a Clear Message

Early Friday morning, Israel attacked military installations near the Iranian cities of Isfahan and nearby Natanz, the latter being one of the hubs of the country’s nuclear program. Jerusalem is not taking credit for the attack, and none of the details are too certain, but it seems that the attack involved multiple drones, likely launched from within Iran, as well as one or more missiles fired from Syrian or Iraqi airspace. Strikes on Syrian radar systems shortly beforehand probably helped make the attack possible, and there were reportedly strikes on Iraq as well.

Iran itself is downplaying the attack, but the S-300 air-defense batteries in Isfahan appear to have been destroyed or damaged. This is a sophisticated Russian-made system positioned to protect the Natanz nuclear installation. In other words, Israel has demonstrated that Iran’s best technology can’t protect the country’s skies from the IDF. As Yossi Kuperwasser puts it, the attack, combined with the response to the assault on April 13,

clarified to the Iranians that whereas we [Israelis] are not as vulnerable as they thought, they are more vulnerable than they thought. They have difficulty hitting us, but we have no difficulty hitting them.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out. . . . It is good that a question mark hovers over . . . what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and air forces was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but, as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel. I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment.

Read more at Jewish Chronicle

More about: Iran, Israeli Security