A Society That Has Lost Its Future

Prof. Amnon Cavari, Head of the Institute for Liberty and Responsibility, Reichman University

Since Saturday, February 28, we have been at war—one initiated by Israel without clearly defined goals and, accordingly, with no foreseeable end. An entire country is sitting in shelters. The economy is paralyzed. Parents are on reserve duty. Children are not studying, or are pretending to study through Zoom lessons (whose effectiveness few still truly believe in). In some homes, people somehow manage to hold everything together. In others, things are falling apart. In some, the collapse will come later.

Perhaps most striking is the public’s ambivalence. On the one hand, there is extremely broad support for the war. On the other hand, the public expresses deep doubts about its outcomes. In a survey we conducted at the Institute for Liberty and Responsibility between March 9–11 among a representative sample of Israeli society (N=812), we found that 71% of the public support Israel’s decision to launch the war against Iran. Among the Jewish public, there is almost complete consensus (90% support). It is hard to think of another issue that commands such broad agreement in Israeli society. Impressive.

But from this point on, things become more complicated. The public is skeptical about the expected results of the war and about the achievement of its goals—assuming those goals were ever clearly defined. Only about half (49%) believe the war will significantly damage Iran’s ability to produce nuclear weapons or reduce the threat of Iranian ballistic missiles. A similar share (50%) believes the war will lead to regime change in Iran. The public also doubts the ability of Israel’s current leadership to manage the war: only 45% express strong trust in the leadership’s management of the war against Iran, and only 39% believe the decision to go to war was driven mostly by strategic considerations rather than personal, political, or other motives.
No less troubling is the pessimistic assessment of what the war means for our future here. Only slightly more than half (56%) believe the war will improve Israel’s security situation in the coming years. A similar share believes Hezbollah can be militarily defeated in a way that would prevent it from posing a significant threat in the coming years. Particularly alarming is that more than half of the public (53%) believes an attack like Hamas’s October 7 assault could occur again (from Gaza or elsewhere) in the coming years.

It is difficult to reconcile the gap between broad support for going to war and deep skepticism about the ability to achieve meaningful goals, along with the low level of trust in the current leadership to manage it. So why does the public support going to war?

Perhaps the answer is that we have become a society that believes its destiny is to live by the sword—a society that, as Prime Minister Netanyahu suggested, embraces the image of Sparta. A society that thirsts for the use of force and has lost hope for a normal life here: a life that does not require running to a shelter every few years, or even every few months. We have grown accustomed to it. Data published recently show a surge in apartment prices with safe rooms and an increasing difficulty in selling apartments without them. Living with an attached shelter has become the aspired condition. Anyone who does not have one and cannot move to a place that does sees their future placed at risk. Try explaining to a non-Israeli friend the considerations that go into choosing an apartment in Israel: five rooms, an ocean view, a garden, and a spacious and comfortable bomb shelter. Ordinary things.

But it is not only about shelters. A normal life is one in which children can rely on a stable education system and participate in extracurricular activities that allow them to develop their abilities in sports, music, culture, and society. None of this is happening. Our children are not studying, and a Zoom meeting of the Scouts (my daughter attended one this week) contradicts everything the movement is meant to offer. As for music lessons, art, or sports, there is little point in even discussing them (Zoom meetings with national league players are nice, but they do not improve skills). In such conditions, a basketball player like Deni Avdija will not emerge from the current generation. Nor is it easy to imagine Nobel Prize laureates emerging from an education system that for six years has struggled to maintain regular schooling.

According to the Israeli Bureau of Statistics, 200,000 Israelis left the country between 2023 and 2025. That is roughly 2% of the Israeli population. A survey by the Institute for Liberty and Responsibility from January 2026 shows that 55% of the public expresses understanding toward those who choose to leave Israel, and 60% believe the trend of emigration will continue. The public understands that leaving may offer a path to a normal life. Not everyone wants. Not everyone can.
I assume we all want our children to live normal lives—lives without sirens and runs to safe rooms or neighborhood shelters. Lives in which parents are at home rather than spending months on reserve duty. Lives that allow us to plan family events and to travel abroad without considering the possibility that flights will be cancelled. Lives in which children go to school and then continue to sports and cultural activities.

It does not seem to be what the current government is offering us. It may also not be what the current opposition is planning to offer. Instead of standing before the public and clearly stating that this war is gravely harming the country, that it has no achievable objective, and that there is no strategy for restoring Israel’s standing in the world, the opposition remains silent—or even worse, supports the government.

Taking to the streets against the current war is the greatest responsibility facing anyone who believes we have no other place but Israel and who wants to raise their children here. But it will likely not happen. Public support for the war, rising support for the prime minister, public exhaustion after two and a half years of war (and more than three years of weekly demonstrations), fear of going out due to sirens, restrictions on gatherings, and a public atmosphere in which criticism of the war is seen as betrayal—all of these stand in the way. And of course, there is not a single leader with the integrity to look the public in the eye and say that the emperor is naked here as well.

So there will be no protest and no public restraint on the government. And we will continue to celebrate in shelters, share amusing memes online, and search for apartments with safe rooms—for the safety of our children. And in doing so, we may slowly discover that what we have lost is not only security, but the very possibility of a normal future here.