A new poll published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reveals that genocidal rhetoric, once confined to Israel’s extremist settler fringe, has now moved into the mainstream, with overwhelming public support for ethnic cleansing, mass killings, and biblical revenge.
Conducted by the Geocartography Knowledge Group for Penn State University in March 2025, the survey of 1,005 Israeli Jews paints a chilling picture of a society increasingly radicalised by religious nationalism and emboldened by war.
The poll found that 82 percent of Jewish Israelis support expelling Palestinians from Gaza and 56 percent back the expulsion of Arab citizens of Israel — up from 45 percent and 31 percent, respectively, in a similar poll in 2003.
To the question, “Do you support the idea that the IDF [Israeli army], when conquering an enemy city, should act as the Israelites did under Joshua in Jericho — by killing all of its inhabitants?”, almost half of the respondents said yes.
Altogether, 47 percent endorsed replicating the biblical conquest of Jericho, in which all residents of an enemy city — in this case, a reference to Palestinians — were slaughtered.
Every 2 in 3 Israelis (around 66 percent) believe that a modern version of Amalek — a biblical enemy of the Jewish people — exists today, and of those, 93 percent believe the biblical command to annihilate Amalek still applies.
The poll arrives at a time when Israel’s war on Gaza has left 54,000 Palestinians dead, most of them women and children. Israeli leaders have repeatedly invoked “Amalek” to describe Palestinians, and military rabbis have framed the war as a biblical obligation.
The Israeli military says, as it captures more territory in Gaza, that it will destroy infrastructure it claims linked to Hamas.
What is Amalek?
Amalek is a “biblical enemy of the Israelites”, described in the Hebrew Bible as a nation that attacked them after the Exodus from Egypt.
In the Book of Deuteronomy, God is believed to command the Israelites to “blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” and “not forget” — a call historically interpreted by some as a divine mandate for total annihilation.
While many Jewish scholars interpret Amalek symbolically — as the embodiment of evil — far-right religious leaders like Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh claim Amalek exists today in the form of Palestinians. This belief fuels religious justification for violence, casting “erasing Amalek” as a sacred duty.
In modern usage, the term has become a theological weapon — a way to frame war, revenge, and extermination not merely as political or military aims but as divine commands.
Forced normalisation of what’s extreme
Religious figures like Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh — once seen as fringe — now appear ideologically ascendant in today’s Israel.
Ginsburgh, the American-born head of the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva in the settlement of Yitzhar, has promoted the killing of non-Jews and claimed their lives hold less value.
He has described Palestinians as spiritual contaminants and urged “purifying” the Israeli army of human rights and restraint.
At the centre of his ideology is his sermon and book The Time to Crack the Nut, which calls for dismantling Israel’s secular democratic structures — likened to protective “shells” — and preparing for a messianic age by purging the land of non-Jews.
He envisions a “nutcracker”: a Jew acting without ethical constraints, driven by vengeance.
Ginsburgh has praised mass murderer Baruch Goldstein, the illegal settler who murdered 29 Palestinians praying at Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron, and written that three “impure shells” — the media, judiciary, and government — must be shattered. The army, too, must be “repaired” by eliminating foreign moral influence.
The poll confirms this ideology is no longer isolated.
According to Haaretz, the Israeli media, once the “first shell” in Ginsburgh’s metaphor, has largely abandoned critical coverage since October 7, 2023 — the day Hamas attacked Israel — echoing calls for vengeance and expulsion.
The judiciary, too, has aligned with theological nationalism: settler Supreme Court Justice David Mintz recently declared the war on Gaza a “biblical obligatory war” to justify denying humanitarian aid, effectively enabling mass starvation.
In education, far-right nationalist curricula have reshaped attitudes among the youth. Only 9 percent of Jewish Israeli men under 40 reject ideas of mass expulsion or extermination.
