Poll: Majority of Israelis think those responsible for Oct. 7 failures must resign

Sixty-two percent of Israelis — both Jewish and Arab — believe it is time for those responsible for the failures of October 7 to resign from their positions, a new poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute has found.

The survey was conducted between April 14-17 and gathered responses from 514 men and women interviewed in Hebrew and 98 interviewed in Arabic.

In response to the question of whether or not they believe that the officials responsible for the failures surrounding the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught should resign more than six months after the single deadliest day in Israel’s history, 58% of Jewish respondents answered that they should, as did 81% of Arab respondents.

Among left-wing and centrist Jewish respondents, a clear majority (84% and 80% respectively) believe those responsible should resign, while only 44% of right-wing Jewish respondents believe the same.

Asked about the issue of general elections — which many have been calling for in the aftermath of October 7 — a slim majority of 51% believe that elections should be held before the end of 2024 while 25% would only want elections to be held at the end of the government’s term in 2026.

When broken down by demographic, the results show that 68% of Arab Israelis would prefer elections to be held in 2024, in contrast to 47% of Jewish Israelis.

The opinions held by Jewish respondents vary greatly when divided by political ideology. While 91.5 percent of left-wing Jews believe that general elections should be held in 2024, only 29% of right-wing respondents and 68% of centrists feel the same.