Nearly three-fifths (57%) of Israeli Jewish adults believe that there is a basis for comparing the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 massacre to the Holocaust, according to a survey published on Tuesday.
The survey of 600 Israeli Jewish adults and 149 Israeli Arab ones was conducted last month for the Israel Democracy Institute’s April 2025 Israeli Voice Index.
In last year’s survey, conducted in April 2024, 54% of Jews accepted the comparison, as did with 44% of Arab respondents.
The survey also measured responses regarding the prospects of a deal between Hamas and Israel for the release of Israeli hostages.
Just under two-thirds of Jewish respondents (62.5%) said they were “optimistic” that such a deal would be reached, whereas 31% said they were “pessimistic.” Among Arabs, the picture was reversed, with 63% “optimists” and 34% “pessimists.”
A majority of respondents gave high performance grades to IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, with 55.5% rating his leadership positively.
This emerged from questions asking respondents to rank several civil servants and officials (the report about the survey did not include references to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or other elected politicians.)
Among Jews, the chief of staff ranked first with a score of 3.12 out of 4. Among Arabs, he was penultimate with a score of 2.18. Zamir replaced Herzi Halevi as the chief of staff in March.
The poll also suggested that Israeli Jews were more optimistic this year about the security situation of their country than they were in 2024. This month, 44% of the Jews interviewed said they were optimistic about this issue compared to 32% in 2024.
Jews were also more optimistic than last year about the “future of democratic rule” in Israel, at 51% compared to 35% last year.
Among Jews, just over half (52%) said that Israel should attack Iran to take out its nuclear weapons project even without U.S. support, compared to about a third (34.5%) who opposed it. Among Arabs, a very large majority opposed such an attack in this situation (76%) compared to a small minority who agreed (9%).
Israel had more successes than failures, according to 56% of Jewish respondents. Another 21% indicated that there is a balance between successes and failures, while 17.5% indicated there have been more failures.
Against the backdrop of talks between the United States and Iran on the Iranian nuclear program, 46% of Jews and 41% of Arabs said that U.S. President Donald Trump would see Israel’s security as a main consideration, according to the survey, which had an error margin of 3.5%.
