Israeli public opinion on Iran war; what is moving through the Strait of Hormuz?

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Today on State of the World, Israeli public opinion on the Iran War and what is moving through

the street of Hormuz. You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's

most vital international stories up close where they're happening. It's Tuesday, March 24th. I'm Greg

Dixon. In a few minutes, we'll hear about which ships are being allowed to travel the maritime

choke point controlled by Iran. First, support for the war in Iran is extremely high among Israeli

Jews. But as NPR's carry con found out, frequent strikes by Iran disrupting lives, killing at least

15 so far, has taken a toll. Workers sweep up piles of broken glass at the large indoor mall in

Iraq. It's just across the street from where an Iranian missile hits Saturday night as 50-year-old

Orin Gospelker's shift as the mall security guard was ending. The siren was off. I go to the

shelter and I heard boom and all the dust inside. Dust filled the bunker and the children in there

began crying. He said, you could feel the bomb's shockways roar through the building and hear glass

shattering everywhere. Gospelker says from day one, he supported the war in Iran.

We started it and yes, we need to finish them. All this regime, all this radical Muslims regime.

Despite the destruction all around town, residents are defiant.

In Chiris, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's motorcade whizzes by and when President Isha Khurzag

visits a local bakery. Israeli Jews are nearly unanimous in their support for the war,

according to public opinion polls. In the first week and two separate polls, more than 90 percent of

Israeli Jews approved of Israel strikes on Iran and the assassination of its top leaders.

Dalia Shemlin, a public opinion researcher and columnist, says Israelis have shown deep political

division over the past years, especially during the war in Gaza. But when it comes to Iran,

they are more unified. The perceived threat of Iran seems to rise above some of the deepest

political divisions in Israeli life. But we don't know how long that will affect our last.

Polls are already showing slight cracks in that unity as millions of Israelis continue spending

hours in bomb shelters. Rebecca Ashener, husband Iit Hayatam,

are making aspresses in their apartment in Ranaana in central Israel.

We've made so much coffee the last three weeks, we know what we're doing.

They have three kids stuck at home and live on the fifth floor. Getting everyone down to the bunker

is tough, especially in the middle of the night. They're exhausted. But Ashen says it will be worth it

for a more secure Israel. It's about making the world and its entirety safer and it's hard to see

how something you think is so true is not perceived as such by so many people across the world.

Hatam, however, isn't as optimistic. There's internal reasons for war in Israel that would be

good for the government. He doesn't trust Netanyahu's motivations for the war. That cynicism is gaining

ground. Another siren sounds in a Tel Aviv neighborhood.

However, this time, the gap between the siren and interceptors stopping the Iranian missile was short.

I'm super tired all the time. It's like a state of tiredness that wouldn't leave me.

Rumi, who asked we only use her first name so she could speak publicly about her politics without

retribution, says she was more hopeful at the beginning of the war that life in Israel would be

safer. I'm afraid that it's just going to be for nothing and the Iranians will still be caged

by this regime and the Middle East will just be more and more angry.

There are more than 1,000 ships, mostly oil tankers, sitting. They're waiting near the

strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for the world's shipping. Iranian attacks have forced them to

wait until it's safe to pass. But the strait is not closed off for everyone. And PR's Jackie

Northam tells us who's getting through and why. During times of peace, about 130 ships would cross

a narrow strait of Hormuz each day. But since the war in Iran broke out, that number has plummeted

to four or five vessels a day. Most of those are either owned or flagged in Iran. But Brigitte

Daikun, a senior analyst at Lloyd's List, the shipping industry news provider, said recently there's

been other activity in the strait. We have in the last several days seen some vessels linked directly

to India's government and Pakistan's governments going through. And we're also now getting

word that China is potentially pushing or there is going to be a push for China state linked

vessels to pass through. Several governments, including India, China and Iraq are in negotiations with

Tehran about coordinating ship transit, according to Lloyd's List. Daikun, speaking at an event by

the International Institute of Strategic Studies, says it's unclear what criteria is being used.

I would say there's not a ton of evidence to suggest that anyone has a free pass through

the strait of Hormuz. You know, I think if there were proper, you know, negotiated agreements

broadly, we would see a lot more vessels moving. I mean, it's still only like, you know, four or

five ships. It's not a huge, huge volume. Daikun says the ships that got through were

grilled by Iran about ownership, ports of call and any affiliation with the US or Israel.

Jim Crane is an energy research fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute, specializing

in the Middle East. He says this is similar to the situation a few years ago in Yemen

when Iranian-aligned Houthis attacked ships in the Red Sea in retaliation for the Gaza war.

It looks like the Iranians have sort of taken a page from the Houthi playbook here,

giving sort of selective access to the strait of Hormuz, to friendly ships or crews or owners

from, you know, countries that have expressed sympathy or neutrality with their goals

when blocking all those that they deem hostile. Harrison Preta is Deputy Director of the Asia Maritime

Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He says Iran

appears to have opened up an auxiliary channel for vessels. Preta says Iranians are diverting ships

closer to its coast. Normally, they go right down the middle of the strait, where there's more room.

This other route is a more narrow channel. It appears to be able to accommodate large vessels because

we saw the Pakistani tanker, for example, use it. And a few other vessels that are flagged to

the Marshall Islands, Panama. We've seen a handful of ships use this route in the past couple of days.

Preta says this is Iran demonstrating it can control the flow of traffic through one of the most

strategically important waterways in the world. Umayun Falak Shahi, who leads the crude analysis

team at Kepler, a global trade intelligence provider, says he doesn't expect hundreds more ships

to cross the strait of Hormuz anytime soon. Even though, you know, we're seeing some tanker

pass through some non-Iranian tankers. I think most of the industry is still in a very cautious

mode because of all the other incidents that we've seen, I think, in total Iran has hit nearly

20 tankers. So I think basically the risk is still too high. The situation around the strait of

Hormuz could get even more precarious if the U.S. sends and marines to help open the waterway.

Jackie Northam in PR News.

That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.