Support for state commission of inquiry into Oct. 7 dropping as government pushes alternative — poll

By Sam Sokol 6 January 2026, 5:34 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"

The share of Israelis who support a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7 attack has dropped by nearly 10 points in the last year, while support for a politically appointed probe has risen, a new poll by the Israel Democracy Institute has found.

According to the institute’s monthly Israeli Voice Index for December 2025, 55% of Israelis still support the formation of a state commission of inquiry, Israel’s highest investigative authority. But this represents a drop of 9.5% from January 2025, and 12% from July 2024.

“This change is due to a sharp decline in support, primarily on the right among Jewish Israelis,” IDI says in a statement. Among Jewish right-wing Israelis, support for a state commission of inquiry has “dropped by over 20 percentage points, from 57% in January 2025 to 36% today,” it says.

Support for a state commission of inquiry remains high on the left (100%) and center (84%).

IDI’s polling shows that 22% of Israelis are in favor an investigative panel whose members are appointed by the government, an increase of 5.5% over January 2025 and 8.5% over July 2024. Meanwhile, 8% support a review by the state comptroller, defense establishment and government agencies.

Among members of Netanyahu’s Likud party, opinion is split, with 36.5% supporting a state commission of inquiry and 36% in favor of a government-appointed probe.

Netanyahu opposes the formation of a state commission, claiming that as it is appointed by the judiciary whose powers his government has sought to curb, it would be biased against the government. Last month his coalition voted in favor of a preliminary reading of a highly controversial bill sponsored by Likud MK Ariel Kallner to set up a politically appointed probe.

Kallner’s plan, a prior version of which the lawmaker floated earlier this year, calls for a Knesset supermajority — 80 out of 120 MKs — to appoint a six-member investigative committee and its chairman. If there is no agreement after two weeks, both the opposition and coalition would be allowed to select three committee members each, who would be joined by four supervisory members representing bereaved families.

The proposal states that if either the coalition or opposition does not cooperate in the process or cannot settle on a candidate, the Knesset speaker will choose instead — giving the coalition effective control, as opposition figures have pledged to boycott the commission.