When we conducted the study again in mid-2024, Jews were twice as likely to support a single, Israeli-dominated unequal state as they were to support two states.
Palestinian attitudes in 2022 were similar. Just one-third supported two states. Both sides showed a mirror-image majority who distrusted the other. In surveys by the IDI from that same time, 59% of Jewish Israelis defined themselves as right-wing; just 12% said they were left-wing.
When did sentiments shift?
What changed after Oct. 7? This July, the Tel Aviv University Peace Index survey found that support for two states stood at 31%, an eight-point decline in the four years since 2022. Now, IDI surveys find that just over 60% of Israeli Jews describe themselves as right-wing, just a few points higher than late 2022.
Israel has changed, but this change began years before Oct. 7 2023. In 2010, no fewer than 71% of Israelis supported a two-state solution in the joint surveys. The years that followed were plagued by stagnation and dissipation of any peace process, regular wars with Hamas, and a heavily nationalist government in Israel. It stands to reason that these phenomena pushed Israeli society further to the right. Support for the two-state solution eroded slowly, then rapidly by the end of the decade.