“Amalek,” Genocide, and the Polling Data: What Do Israeli Jews Really Think? (draft 1 and 2 below)
Recent months have seen a dramatic shift in the global conversation about Israel’s war in Gaza, with unprecedented accusations of genocide coming not just from longtime critics, but from prominent Israeli politicians, military leaders, and genocide scholars themselves. Yet, beneath the headlines, new polling data reveals an even more disturbing reality: support for extreme violence—and even extermination—of Palestinians is not limited to the Israeli government or far-right fringe, but is widespread among Jewish Israelis themselves.
The “Amalek” Poll: Biblical Rhetoric, Modern Atrocity
In March 2025, a survey conducted by Pennsylvania State University and published (in Hebrew) by Haaretz asked Jewish Israelis a series of questions about their attitudes toward Palestinians in Gaza and Israel. The most shocking finding: 47% of Jewish Israelis supported the Israeli army “acting as the Israelites did at Jericho”—that is, killing all the inhabitants of a conquered enemy city. This is a direct reference to the biblical story of Jericho and the command to destroy Amalek, invoked by Prime Minister Netanyahu and other leaders as justification for the war on Gaza. The “Amalek” reference is not accidental; it was cited by South Africa at the International Court of Justice as evidence of genocidal intent, and has been widely discussed in both Israeli and international media (see Mother Jones, Jan. 2024).
The same poll found that 82% of Jewish Israelis support the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, and 56% support the expulsion of Palestinian citizens of Israel. Even among secular Jews—often assumed to be more liberal—70% supported expulsion from Gaza, and 38% supported expelling Palestinian citizens of Israel. The pollsters’ decision to use the “Amalek” framing was deliberate: it tested whether the biblical logic of total destruction, so prominent in Israeli political rhetoric since October 7, still resonates with the public. The answer, disturbingly, is yes.
Pre-October 7: Continuity and Change
It would be a mistake to attribute these attitudes solely to the trauma of the October 7 Hamas attack. In fact, extreme anti-Palestinian sentiment has deep roots in Israeli society. A 2016 Pew survey found that 48% of Jewish Israelis agreed that “Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel.” Other polls over the past decade have consistently shown high levels of support for discriminatory or violent policies toward Palestinians, especially during times of conflict.
What has changed since October 7 is not the existence of these attitudes, but their intensity and explicitness. The trauma of the Hamas attack, and the subsequent war, have amplified pre-existing hatreds and made support for the most extreme measures—expulsion, extermination, denial of humanitarian aid—more open and widespread. As Israeli genocide scholars like Omer Bartov and journalists like Gideon Levy have noted, the roots of these views run deep, but the events of the past year have brought them to the surface in ways that are impossible to ignore.
Why the “Amalek” Reference Matters
Understanding the significance of the “Amalek” framing is essential. In the Hebrew Bible, God commands the Israelites to utterly destroy the people of Amalek—men, women, children, and animals—as an act of divine justice. By invoking this story, Netanyahu and others have provided a religious and historical justification for total war against Gaza, and for policies that international legal experts argue amount to genocide.
The fact that nearly half of Jewish Israelis now endorse this logic is not just a reflection of post-traumatic rage. It is a sign that the language of genocide has moved from the margins to the mainstream, shaping not just policy, but public opinion itself.
Implications: A Society Radicalized
These findings challenge the comforting narrative—still prevalent in much Western media—that the problem lies only with “Netanyahu and his gang” or the far right. The reality is more troubling: support for atrocities is broad, crossing lines of religiosity, age, and political affiliation. The willingness to contemplate, and even endorse, the most extreme forms of violence against Palestinians is now a feature of Israeli Jewish society, not a bug.
This is not just an academic debate. As the ICJ and ICC weigh charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, and as Western governments begin to reassess their support for Israel, understanding the true extent of public support for these policies is essential. It is not enough to blame leaders or extremists; the reckoning must include a hard look at the society that empowers them.
Conclusion
The new polling data is a wake-up call. It reveals not just the depth of Israeli Jewish support for policies that meet the definition of ethnic cleansing and genocide, but also the power of religious and historical narratives to justify atrocity in the present. As the world debates how to respond, we must confront not just the actions of a government, but the beliefs of a society. Only then can there be any hope of justice—or peace.
Sources:
-
Middle East Eye, “Nearly half of Israelis support army killing all Palestinians in Gaza, poll finds,” May 24, 2025.
-
Pew Research Center, “Israel’s Religiously Divided Society,” 2016.
-
Mother Jones, “As It Formally Accuses Israel of Genocide, South Africa Condemns Netanyahu’s Amalek Reference,” Jan. 11, 2024.
-
Associated Press, “South Africa Condemns Netanyahu’s Amalek Reference at Genocide Hearings,” Jan. 2024.
-
New York Times, Megan K. Stack, “Don’t Turn Away From the Charges of Genocide Against Israel,” Jan. 12, 2024.
-
Gideon Levy, “Israeli Leftists: Shake Off the Shock of October 7 and Open Your Eyes to Gaza,” Haaretz, Mar. 13, 2024.
-
Shibley Telhami, “How Israel’s Jewishness is overtaking its democracy,” Brookings, Mar. 11, 2016.
Haaretz (Hebrew), May 2025
OR DRAFT 2 (below)
“Amalek,” Genocide, and Israeli Jewish Public Opinion: The Poll That Shocks the World
Introduction
As the International Court of Justice (ICJ) weighs charges of genocide against Israel, a new poll published in Hebrew by Haaretz in spring 2025 reveals something even more alarming than government policy: widespread public support among Jewish Israelis for the most extreme forms of violence against Palestinians, including exterminationist measures. The poll’s biblical framing—referencing the command to destroy Amalek—directly echoes the rhetoric used by Israeli leaders and cited by South Africa as evidence of genocidal intent at the ICJ. This post examines the poll, its context, and its implications for understanding both the roots and the current intensity of anti-Palestinian sentiment in Israel.
The “Amalek” Frame: From Rhetoric to Public Opinion
The “Amalek” reference is not just a rhetorical flourish. In November 2023, Prime Minister Netanyahu told Israeli troops preparing to invade Gaza:
“You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.”
As the Associated Press and Mother Jones reported, this biblical command—“Spare no one, but kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings”—was cited by South Africa at the ICJ as evidence of genocidal intent. Israeli soldiers were filmed chanting about “wiping out the seed of Amalek” as they entered Gaza.
The new 2025 poll, conducted by Pennsylvania State University and published in Haaretz (Hebrew), asked Jewish Israelis if they supported the army “acting as the Israelites did at Jericho”—that is, killing all inhabitants of a conquered enemy city. Nearly half (47%) said yes.
-
82% supported the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.
-
56% supported expelling Palestinian citizens of Israel.
-
Even among secular Jews, 70% supported expulsion from Gaza, and 38% supported expelling Palestinian citizens of Israel.
This is not just a fringe phenomenon. The biblical logic of total destruction—once the preserve of the far right—has gone mainstream.
Continuity: Deep Roots of Anti-Palestinian Sentiment
It would be a mistake to see these attitudes as a sudden post-October 7 aberration. As Shibley Telhami summarized in a 2016 Brookings analysis of Pew polling, 48% of Jewish Israelis agreed that “Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel.” Majorities of every non-secular Jewish group, and a significant minority of secular Jews, agreed.
-
Most Jewish Israelis believe Jews deserve “preferential treatment” in Israel (Pew, 2016).
-
The overwhelming majority say their Jewish identity takes precedence over civic identity.
This is the context in which the current crisis has unfolded. As analysts like Owen Jones, Norman Finkelstein, Noam Chomsky, and Avi Shlaim have long argued, these attitudes are deeply rooted in the foundations of Israeli political Zionism and have shaped policy and society for decades.
Amplification: The Shock of October 7
Yet, as Gideon Levy argues in his March 2024 Haaretz op-ed, October 7 was a turning point. The Hamas attack triggered a wave of anger, fear, and desire for revenge that swept across Israeli society, including its liberal and left-leaning segments. Levy describes how even the “camp of conscience and humanity” in Israel “shut off and stored away” its moral compass, justifying or ignoring the horrors inflicted on Gaza in the name of national trauma. He pleads with his fellow Israelis to “sober up from the sobering up,” warning that catastrophe should not have “turned [their] moral principles inside out.”
Genocide scholar Omer Bartov and others agree: the trauma of October 7 acted as an amplifier, making latent hatreds public and normalized.
The ICJ, Global Debate, and Why the Poll Matters
The “Amalek” rhetoric is now central to the legal case against Israel. As Megan Stack wrote in a New York Times op-ed (Jan. 12, 2024):
“The words of Israeli officials are being offered as evidence of intent: from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging Israelis to ‘remember’ the Old Testament account of the carnage of Amalek (‘Spare no one, but kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings,’ reads one passage) to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowing that ‘Gaza won’t return to what it was before. There will be no Hamas. We will eliminate everything’ to the minister of energy and infrastructure pledging, ‘They will not receive a drop of water or a single battery until they leave this world.’ By speaking openly about destroying Gaza and dispersing its residents, Israeli leaders have publicized what has, in other cases of genocide, been hidden or denied.”
The new polling data shows that this is not just about leaders or the far right. Support for atrocities is broad, crossing lines of religiosity, age, and political affiliation. As the ICJ and ICC weigh charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, and as Western governments reassess their support for Israel, understanding the true extent and roots of public support for these policies is essential.
Conclusion
The new polling data is a wake-up call. It reveals not just the depth of Israeli Jewish support for policies that meet the definition of ethnic cleansing and genocide, but also the power of trauma and religious narrative to justify atrocity in the present. As the world debates how to respond, we must confront not just the actions of a government, but the beliefs of a society—both their historical roots and their present amplification.
Key Sources:
-
Middle East Eye, “Nearly half of Israelis support army killing all Palestinians in Gaza, poll finds,” May 24, 2025.
-
Pew Research Center, “Israel’s Religiously Divided Society,” 2016.
-
Mother Jones, “As It Formally Accuses Israel of Genocide, South Africa Condemns Netanyahu’s Amalek Reference,” Jan. 11, 2024.
-
Associated Press, “South Africa Condemns Netanyahu’s Amalek Reference at Genocide Hearings,” Jan. 2024.
-
New York Times, Megan K. Stack, “Don’t Turn Away From the Charges of Genocide Against Israel,” Jan. 12, 2024.
-
Gideon Levy, “Israeli Leftists: Shake Off the Shock of October 7 and Open Your Eyes to Gaza,” Haaretz, Mar. 13, 2024.
-
Shibley Telhami, “How Israel’s Jewishness is overtaking its democracy,” Brookings, Mar. 11, 2016.
No comments:
Post a Comment