Poll: Most Israelis oppose resumption of overhaul, think hostage deal is most urgent

Amid renewed efforts by the coalition to resume its judicial overhaul legislation, a Channel 13 poll says over half of the public, 51.3%, oppose the initiative, while 34.7% support it.

According to the survey results, 49.3% believe the overhaul bills endanger Israeli democracy, while 36.6% believe they don’t.

Asked what is the most urgent issue the government should be tackling, 65.6% of respondents say advancing a hostage deal, 13.1% say rebuilding war-battered southern and northern communities, 10.4% say advancing the overhaul, and 7.7% say promoting a law to mandate recruitment to the military for all Israelis.

The survey shows that few Israelis support recent controversial remarks urging refusal to serve in the military or refusal to keep showing up to reserve duty.

A whopping 74.4% oppose former chief rabbi Yitzhak Yosef’s claim that all ultra-Orthodox men, including those who don’t study in yeshiva, must not serve in the IDF. Just 17.7% support the assertion.

And 68.8% object to former state attorney Moshe Lador’s remark urging reservist pilots to stop showing up for duty if the overhaul is advanced, while only 17.4% agree with it.

The poll was conducted by the Midgam Panel Project in the Jewish community and by Statnet in the Arab community. Channel 13 doesn’t say how many respondents took part, and doesn’t detail the margin of error.

Russia says it evacuated some Russian, Belarusian, North Korean diplomats out of Syria

A special Russian air force flight from the Khmeimim air base in Syria has evacuated some of the Russian diplomatic personnel in Damascus as well as Belarusian and North Korean diplomats, the Russian foreign ministry says.

“The work of the Russian Embassy in Damascus continues,” the crisis situation department of the Russian foreign ministry says on its Telegram messaging channel.

Russia’s RIA state news agency reports, citing the Belarusian foreign ministry, that all Belarusian diplomats have been evacuated from Syria.

Israel said to heavily strike military targets on Syrian coast

Reports say Israeli strikes have targeted military sites in Syria’s coastal Tartus region, with a Syria war monitor calling them “the heaviest strikes” in the area in more than a decade.

“Israeli warplanes launched strikes” targeting a series of sites, including air defense units and “surface-to-surface missile depots,” says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in what it says were “the heaviest strikes in Syria’s coastal region since the start of strikes in 2012.”

Footage posted to social media shows a huge explosion.

פיצוץ מאגר האמל"ח בטרטוס – בתקיפת צה"ל. pic.twitter.com/BaqRUOqhub

— נדב איל Nadav Eyal (@Nadav_Eyal) December 15, 2024

???????? Tartus pic.twitter.com/Gshsa2mIrc

— Malinda ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? (@TreasChest) December 16, 2024

SOHR, run by a single person, has regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of false reporting and inflating casualty numbers as well as inventing them wholesale.