Former Israeli official: Most Israelis support normalization

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00:00The extreme right-wingers in Netanyahu's coalition, as you mentioned, have been clear

00:05about their desire for the war to continue. So how much support does this latest ceasefire

00:12agreement have within the Israeli government, the coalition, fragile as it is, and also within

00:18society in Israel? Well, yeah, I think within the coalition, as we're both saying, I mean,

00:25Ben-Gavir and Minister Smotrich, they want to keep on fighting forever. But, you know,

00:30they're too small. They represent too small parties in the coalition. And it may be that

00:34the coalition has to collapse. And then there would need to be a realignment, maybe new elections

00:40in Israel. And then we would see how the Israeli people vote. But my guess is, I mean, it seems

00:44clear from opinion polls that Israeli people want the war to end. They want the hostages

00:48freed more than anything. I think the majority of Israelis are critical of Netanyahu precisely

00:54for continuing the war, rather than focusing entirely on freeing the hostages. Now, Netanyahu

00:59has argued, well, it is through military pressure that we've been able to get any of the hostages

01:04released. But I think that excuse is starting to wear thin on the Israeli population. And,

01:09you know, were there to be new elections, it seems very unlikely that he would win. Though

01:14the idea of destroying Hamas has been popular across the political spectrum in Israel. It's

01:20just that even more Israelis want to see the hostages released.