Press Release

Overwhelming Majority of Israelis Think President Trump Responsible for Ceasefire Deal; Think Trump will Pressure Netanyahu to Achieve Middle East Initiatives

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A majority of Israelis think there is a fair or high chance President Trump will exert pressure on Israel if the government in Israel does not align with his initiatives in the Middle East; A large majority (72.5%) also think the release of the hostages was achieved thanks to his intervention.

Photos by: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90; Istock; Library of Congress

Did Trump really secure the ceasefire deal? President Trump recently declared that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the release of the hostages agreed upon as part of phase one of the deal were achieved thanks to him. We asked: "In your opinion, was US President Trump correct or incorrect in saying that the ceasefire agreement and the release of the hostages were achieved thanks to his intervention?" A large majority of the total sample (72.5%), as well as among Jews and Arabs separately (74% and 64% respectively), responded that this was the case. Segmentation by political orientation (Jews) also revealed only small differences – in all political orientations, the majority believe that Trump was correct in his attitude towards his role in these achievements (Left 83%, Center 79%, Right 74%).

Was US President Trump correct or incorrect in saying that the ceasefire agreement and the release of the hostages were achieved thanks to his intervention? (%, total sample)

Pressure on Israel in the future? We asked what the chances are that President Trump will exert real pressure on Israel, and perhaps even impose sanctions, if the Netanyahu-led government does not align with his initiatives in the Middle East, for example a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. Similar to the distribution of responses in the previous question, we also found in the responses to this question a consensus among the majority of Jewish and Arab respondents that the chance of this is fairly high or very high (total sample 72.5%, Jews 73.5%, Arabs 67.5%). Here too, segmentation by political orientation (Jews) revealed a majority in all three political camps that assess the chance of exerting such pressure as fairly or very high, although on the Right it is smaller (Left 89%, Center 88%, Right 66.5%)

What are the chances that President Trump will exert real pressure on Israel, and perhaps even impose sanctions, if the Netanyahu-led government does not align with his initiatives in the Middle East, such as a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia? (%, total sample)

The polling data above is an early release of a section of the January 2025 Israeli Voice Index, which was prepared by the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute. The survey was conducted via the internet and by telephone (to include groups that are under-represented on the internet) between January 28–February 2, 2025, with 604 men and women interviewed in Hebrew and 151 in Arabic, constituting a nationally representative sample of the adult population in Israel aged 18 and over. The maximum sampling error was ±3.57% at a confidence level of 95%. Field work was carried out by Shiluv I²R.