Most Israelis support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stance on the Iran nuclear issue after the Islamic republic met world powers in Geneva this week, an opinion poll showed on Friday.

Some 58 percent of respondents to the question "how would you rate Netanyahu's recent performance in the global arena vis-a-vis Iran?" said it was good (41 percent) or very good (17 percent), said the poll published in Haaretz newspaper.

The world's positive response to the latest nuclear talks with Iran drew bitter skepticism from Israel, which warned its Western allies Thursday they risked being duped into easing sanctions prematurely.

Energy Minister Silvan Shalom, a former foreign minister, went further, accusing the European Union and the United States of being more interested in the resumption of Iranian oil exports than with addressing an issue that Israel regards as a threat to its very existence.

Construction starts in Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land rose by a "drastic" 70 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2013, an Israeli NGO said on Thursday.

According to figures released by the anti-settlement group Peace Now, between January and June construction started on 1,708 new homes in the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, compared with 995 in the first half of 2012.

Easing pressure on Iran over its nuclear program at this stage would be a "historic mistake," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

"It would be a historic mistake to ease the pressure on Iran a moment before the sanctions achieve their objective," he said at the opening of the Israeli parliament's winter session.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday "a bad deal is worse than no deal" with Iran over its disputed nuclear program, ahead of crunch talks between Tehran and world powers.

In excerpts of an interview with the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published in advance, he called for sanctions on the Tehran regime to be stepped up rather than eased.

Iranians are accustomed to jabs from Israel's prime minister. But this one hit a nerve: Claiming clampdowns by Iran's rulers extended to blue jeans.

Social media sites were flooded Monday with Iranians posting photos including an Iranian closet piled high with denim and a young boy in jeans whispering into the ear of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Palestinians must "recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people" in order to achieve real peace, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

"The Palestinians must abandon their refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish people to their national state," he said in a speech at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said sanctions on Iran are close to "achieving their goal" of dismantling Tehran's nuclear enrichment capability and should not be relaxed.

"The sanctions on Iran are working. They are very strong; they are a moment away from achieving their goal," he said ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's uncompromising United Nations speech on Iran and its nuclear program has unified ranks at home but vexed the United States, drawing fire from influential American pundits.

"The world must not be fooled by the Iranian ploy into easing the sanctions," Netanyahu said Friday upon returning from New York, adding he would be meeting next week with European leaders on Iran's nuclear program.

A majority of Israelis would support unilateral military action against Iran, according to a poll published Friday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was ready to act alone.

Some 65.6 percent of 500 Jewish Israelis surveyed by the pro-government Israel HaYom newspaper said they would support military strikes to halt Iran's nuclear program, and 84 percent believed the Islamic republic had no intention of reining in its alleged drive to build a bomb.