February saw a sharp increase in the proportion of Israelis who describe their nation's overall situation as bad or very bad, according to the Israeli Democracy Institute's February 2023 edition of the Israeli Voice Index.
The percentage of Israelis who are optimistic about the future of Israel's national security declined from 46% in January to 31% in February.
The Israeli Voice Index is a monthly survey conducted by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research. The February report was compiled by Prof. Tamar Hermann and Dr. Or Anabi.
The survey was conducted via the internet and by telephone between February 27 and March 5, 2023, with 608 men and women interviewed in Hebrew and 173 in Arabic, creating a nationally representative sample of the adult population in Israel.
National security and the future of Israeli democracy
Researchers found a notable decline in the percentage of Israelis who are optimistic about Israel's security, both internal and external. Optimists were in the minority across the political spectrum - 11% of those on the Left, 22% of those in the center and 46% of those on the Right reported optimism about Israel's security. The IDI report noted that this could be due to February's uptick in terror attacks.
The level of optimism about the future of democracy has stayed the same over the last several months, according to the IDI's reports. Only 38% of all respondents reported feeling optimistic about the future of democratic rule in Israel. Among those, 41% of Jews expressed this sentiment whereas only 19% of Arabs interviewed did.
In terms of Israel's overall situation, the percentage of interviewees who characterized it as bad or very bad rose from 30% to 47% since October 2022 when the question was last asked. The number of respondents who described Israel's situation has remained stable at approximately 25%, which means that the shift occurred among those whose opinions were previously neutral.
In the Jewish population, the proportion who describe the situation as bad or very bad has increased from 28% to 43%, and in the Arab public, it has risen from 41% to 66%.