The Arab Opinion Index for 2022 places economic difficulties ahead of opposition to Israel.
An annual poll has found that despite the region’s countries signing recognition agreements two years ago, the vast majority of Arabs still oppose the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel. Only a very small percentage of respondents in 14 Arab nations who participated in the 2022 Arab Opinion Index survey showed support for their nation’s establishment of diplomatic ties with Israel.
The country with the highest level of support, Morocco, which established diplomatic ties in December 2020 as part of a deal mediated by the US, had 20% of respondents who said they supported recognition. Algeria and Mauritania had the lowest support for recognition, with 0% and 1%, respectively.
In addition, Israel topped the poll as the country in the region that posed the greatest threat to respondents’ home countries, with 79% of Palestinians and 53% of Lebanese responding. Iran was seen as the most dangerous country by Iraqis, followed by Turkey. Only 1.5% stated that the Israeli occupation was the most pressing issue facing their region, despite widespread opposition to Israeli recognition.
The most common concerns expressed by respondents were inflation and the cost of living, followed by “negative economic conditions” and unemployment. While virtually no one in Lebanon described their countries’ economic circumstances as “positive,” the majority of people in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Kuwait did.
The majority of people in all regions, with the exception of the Persian Gulf, agreed that their nation was moving in the wrong direction, with the highest percentage, 84 percent, agreeing in the Levant (Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan). Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a significant portion of the region is currently experiencing an economic crisis.
For a large portion of the Arab world, which is heavily dependent on imports, Ukraine was a crucial source of food.
No Vision for Peace
The majority of Israelis believe that politicians who advocated for a military strike against Iran to halt its nuclear project were correct, and that peace with the Palestinians is only a remote possibility in this decade. A survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 87% of Israelis, including Palestinian Israeli citizens, believe there is very little chance of making peace with the Palestinians in the next five years.
Instead, Jewish Israelis prioritized internal issues, with 35% saying that stabilizing the economy was top of their list of priorities. In the meantime, only 8.5% of people on the left of the political spectrum, 6% of people on the center, and 1% of people on the right said that making a peace deal with the Palestinians was their top priority.
According to the survey, which surveyed 756 people and interviewed them, 53% of Palestinian Israeli citizens rated fighting crime and the spread of weapons in Israeli towns as a top priority and a problem they would like to be solved by next year.
45 percent of Israelis believed that those who supported a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities during the early stages of its program were correct, and 27.5% believed that the government should make a deal with Iran to prevent it from developing a nuclear capability.
47 percent of those surveyed believe that Iran’s nuke of Israel in a military conflict is very unlikely, while 37 percent believe that such a scenario is highly likely. In the meantime, 61% of Israelis believe that the normalization agreements that were signed in September 2020 with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates had fulfilled their expectations.
