13 September 2019
A survey conducted by the Direct Polls Institute in July showed that in Israel’s religious Zionist communities, there appears to be an across-the-board consensus regarding Zionist claims to Masjid al-Aqsa according to a report in Makor Rishon. The survey was backed by entrepreneur Shlomo Ben-Zvi and included 569 Religious Zionist (Israeli) participants. 77.6% of those surveyed support or strongly supports (25.4% support and 52.2% strongly support) allowing Jews to worship in Masjid al-Aqsa as opposed to only 9.7% who oppose or strongly oppose it (6.2% oppose it and 3.5% strongly oppose it). The Religious Zionists are Israelis who purportedly “try to observe the commandments of the Torah but also believe in the spiritual significance of the state of Israel and therefore believe strongly in serving in the IDF.”
Religious Zionists compose approximately 50 percent of the candidates in the combat officer’s training course, especially in the ground forces. Growing numbers of Religious Zionist officers are making their way to the upper echelons of command, getting promoted to commanders of combat regiments as well as brigades. This lies in stark contrast to the late 1980s when the IDF’s entire high command and its elite combat units were virtually entirely composed of secular troops.
An additional question that was asked related to the Jordanian Waqf, the official custodians of Masjid al-Aqsa. The survey asked whether or not the Religious Zionist public believes that Masjid al-Aqsa should be under Israeli rule exclusively. Here too, a wide majority of religious Zionism – 81.1% support full Israeli sovereignty over al-Aqsa, while 6.7% oppose it.
The survey also explored a hypothetical peace deal, such as Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’, the national religious would agree to defer sovereignty over al-Aqsat to Saudi Arabia. Again, an almost wall-to-wall agreement showed: 78.6% oppose it, while 8.3% support these measures.
The survey was released as Jews were beginning a three-week mourning period commemorating “the destruction of the Temple twice, first in 586 BCE and then, after it had been rebuilt, in 70 CE.”
ADAPTED FROM: Breaking Israel News
