A majority of Israelis want the war to end and the hostages freed, while a similar amount also thinks that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should resign now or once the war is over as a way of accepting responsibility for October 7, the Israel Democracy Institute found in a poll published last week.
IDI found that 66% of Israelis believe that the war should be ended with this current hostage deal, representing a 13% increase compared to September 2024.
This was broken down by IDI into sectors of society, finding that 60% of Jewish Israelis believe its time to end the war while 32% believe it is not the right time. In contrast, 93% of Israeli Arabs believe the war should be over.
IDI also assessed opinions of Netanyahu, finding that 45% of Israelis think that he should take responsibility for the October 7 massacre and resign immediately, while another 19% also believe that he should take responsibility but resign only at the end of the war.
Regardless, Netanyahu is still viewed as the second best performing official during the war according to the survey, with participants granting an average score of 2.78 out of 5. Only IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir got a higher score, rated at 3.26.
Palestinian state, multiple-front war worry Israelis
The establishment of a Palestinian state and the possibility of entering a multiple-front war are among the things that the majority of Israelis perceive as a threat for the existence of Israel, IDI found.
Only 18% of Jewish Israelis believe Palestinians have a right to a state, while Arab Israeli support for this topic is at a record low with only 58% supporting Palestinian statehood, compared to 89% in 2024.
The possibility of a multiple-front war also scares Israelis, with 23% thinking that it is the greatest external existential threat to the State of Israel. But this fear is almost tied with international isolation, boycotts, and losing American support, each of which was selected by 20% of the survey respondents as the greatest threat.
The survey was carried out by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute. It was conducted via the internet and by telephone (to include groups that are under-represented on the internet) between September 14–18, 2025, with 800 male and female participants interviewed in Hebrew and 200 in Arabic, constituting a representative sample of the population in Israel aged 18 and above.