What Iranians Actually Think of Israel: The GAMAAN Data

Measuring public opinion inside a police state is hard, and rounded slogans about "the Iranian people" are cheap. GAMAAN — the Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran — tries to do it honestly, using large anonymous online surveys (often via VPN) to reach Iranians who cannot speak freely. In a survey conducted in September 2025, after the June 2025 war, GAMAAN found that Israel ranked second in favorability among foreign countries: 39% of respondents held a positive view and 48% a negative one. Iran International, reporting the survey, noted that many Iranians believed Israel had prevailed in the war and supported talks with the United States. GAMAAN's earlier work includes a 2021 report on Iranians' attitudes toward international relations. The picture is mixed — a plurality still holds negative views — but it is a real one, and it points in a clear direction: hostility toward Israel is not the fixed national consensus the regime pretends it is. Decades of state propaganda have not made "Death to Israel" the will of the Iranian people.