Poll: Israelis strongly back Gaza operation divided over ceasefire

A recent Tel Aviv University (TAU) poll suggests that while Israelis overwhelmingly supported the army's "Operation Pillar of Defense" two weeks ago in the Gaza Strip to quell militant rocket fire, sharp differences of opinions emerged on whether it should have continued. A whopping 84 percent of Jews across the political spectrum strongly backed the Air Force's 1,500 sorties against Palestinian militant leaders and launch crews; 89 percent of those self- defined as rightists and 85.5 percent of centrists said the military action was justified, with 74 percent of those who defined themselves as left-wing reaching the same conclusion. The TAU Israel Democracy Institute data, collected between Nov. 28 and Dec. 2 from a representative samples of 600 Jewish and Arab Israeli adults, included rural moshav and kibbutz collective farm members, and Jewish settlers in the West Bank, with a 4.5-percent sampling error. But while pollsters found widespread support for the operation, sharp differences appeared over the timing and conclusion of the effort to halt incessant rocket fire into Israeli. Palestinians fired some 1,500 rockets at Israeli cities and towns, including Tel Aviv. About 53 percent of those polled said the timing of the decision to end the operation was correct, while 44 percent averred that it should have continued. Politically, 57 percent of those on the left agreed that the operation ended at the right point, as opposed to 47 percent of rightist respondents. While 61 percent of the Jewish public thought the operation's goals were clear, only 49 percent of the country's Arab public shared that view, according to the poll. About two-thirds of the Israeli respondents said Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's brokering the ceasefire with Hamas was a positive move.