From the Liveblog of
Monday, May 6, 2024
Poll: 54% of Jewish Israelis believe there can be comparison between Holocaust, Oct. 7
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Just over half of Jewish Israelis believe that there is a basis for comparison between the Holocaust and the events of October 7, according to a new poll by the Israel Democracy Institute.
Fifty-four percent of 600 Jewish respondents polled on May 1-5 stated that there was some basis for the comparison, while 39% said it such a comparison was out of place and 8% were unsure.
Fifty-six percent of those polled who were politically on the right, 54% on the left and 46% in the political center agreed that there was a basis for comparison.
“Ahead of this year’s Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), the debate that began more than six months ago has intensified, regarding the relevance of the comparisons between the events of October 7 and the events of the Holocaust,” says Prof. Tamar Hermann, the director of the IDI’s Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research.
“The fact that among the Jewish respondents, a majority (albeit a small one) feel that there is a basis for such a comparison, suggests that despite the obvious difference between the circumstances in both periods, and despite Israel being a sovereign and militarily strong country, the sense of existential threat is a very strong link between then and now, especially against the backdrop of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli hatred around the world today,” Hermann says.
