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29 May 2024

After Seven Months of War, Israeli National Resilience Is Clearly in Decline

Anat Shapira, Meir Elran & Mora Deitch

Resilience is usually defined as the capacity of any system to successfully deal with a severe disruption/disaster (natural or man-made), to maintain reasonable functional continuity during the event, recover from it as quickly as possible, and subsequently rise to a higher level of systemic functioning. In this article, we will examine four of the main elements of resilience, as manifested in 15 public opinion surveys conducted by INSS since the start of the war, the most recent of which was held between April 14–16, 2024.[1]

Trust in State Institutions

The surveys examined the level of trust that the Israeli public feels toward the IDF, the Israel Police, and the government of Israel. The data shows a high and steady level of trust in the IDF, reaching close to 90% among the Jewish population (see Figure 1). At the same time, the longer the war in Gaza continues, there is a clear and consistent decline in the percentage who express confidence in the IDF’s ability to win the war, from 92% at the start of the conflict to 64% in the most recent survey (see Figure 2). There has also been a decline in the percentage of those who believe that the goals of the campaign in Gaza will be achieved (see Figure 3). Just 10% of Jewish respondents believe that the goals of the war will be fully achieved. The gap between the very high level of trust in the IDF and these figures could be explained by the emotional connection that the Israeli public has with the IDF and the need to believe in it, more than a sober assessment of its capabilities.

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