There has been a significant increase in trust in the IDF following the appointment of Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir as IDF chief, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) revealed in its new March 2025 survey.
73 percent of the Israeli public express high trust (to a great or quite great extent) in the IDF, compared to 66% in the previous month (before the appointment of Zamir).
If this statistic is split by sector, 84% of Jewish Israelis have high trust in the IDF, compared to 30% of Arab Israelis.
Zamir himself has a 15% increase in trust compared to February, before he took office.
Interestingly, there has also been an increase in trust in the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, with 60% of the sample expressing high trust, an increase of 5% from the previous month.
A majority of 58% of INSS's sample revealed high trust in the Shin Bet, though this number was over twice as high among Jews (65%) as to Arabs (29.5%).
Despite relatively high trust levels in Israel's security establishment, the sample expressed very low levels of trust in the Israeli government, the prime minister, and the defense minister.
Less than a quarter of the public had a high level of trust in the government, and only 29% expressed high trust in Prime Minister Netanyahu (35% among Jews and only 3% among Arabs).
The public's trust in Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara increased.
October 7 and the Israel-Hamas War
The March data revealed an increase in public trust for the IDF's ability to investigate October 7 and draw lessons from it. This comes about a month after the IDF presented the majority of its probes into the October 7 disaster.
43% expressed high trust in the army's ability to conduct investigations and draw lessons, compared to 35% in February.
However, a 52% majority expressed low trust in the IDF's ability to investigate itself and draw lessons.
Regarding the return to fighting in Gaza, 54% of the public believes that the prime minister was motivated by political considerations. 40% believe that security considerations are the main motivation for Netanyahu.
A narrow majority of the public believes that the renewal of fighting reduces the chances of the hostages being returned, and a slightly larger number believes that the government is not doing all it can to return the remaining 59 captives.