Arab world rejects 'Israel,' distrust of US deepens sharply: Poll
The Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies released the findings of its 2025 Arab Opinion Index (AOI) on Thursday, drawing on face-to-face interviews with 40,130 respondents across 15 Arab countries, the largest such survey ever conducted in the region.
The results paint an unambiguous picture, such that Arab public opinion on Palestine, "Israel," and the United States has crystallized into positions that normalization agreements and diplomatic overtures have done little to shift.
Conducted between November 2024 and August 2025, the ninth edition of the AOI surveyed citizens in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, and Tunisia, with an overall margin of error of ±2–3%.
Normalization meets a wall of public rejection
An overwhelming 87% of respondents opposed their countries recognizing "Israel," while just 6% expressed support, and of those, half conditioned recognition on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The figures mark the highest opposition rate since the 2019/20 survey.
Libya led with 96% opposition, followed by Jordan (95%), Mauritania (95%), and Kuwait (94%). Notably, in countries that have signed normalization agreements, public opposition has intensified rather than softened.
In Morocco, support for recognizing "Israel" collapsed from 20% in 2022/23 to just 6%. In Sudan, the figure dropped to 7% after fluctuating between 13 and 23% in previous surveys.
Unsurprisingly, respondents who opposed recognition cited overwhelmingly political, not religious, reasons. The leading justification, cited by 31.5%, was the Israeli regime's status as a settler-colonial state occupying Palestine.
A further 13.3% pointed to its expansionist ambitions in the region, while 9.1% cited its ongoing oppression of Palestinians. Religious motivations accounted for just 2.3% of responses, down from nearly 7% in 2019/20.
Gaza: Personal impact, collective trauma
The survey revealed the profound personal toll of "Israel's" war on Gaza and Lebanon, with 87% of respondents reporting psychological stress as a direct result. 70% said they were actively following the war, relying primarily on satellite television (57%) and the internet (35%).
Rating international powers
South Africa emerged as the most positively viewed international actor, with 15% naming it the country that had taken the best stance toward Palestinians, the highest for any single country. 83% said Pretoria's ICJ case against "Israel" had boosted their morale. Spain and Iran tied for second at 7% each.
Additionally, when asked to evaluate international policies toward Palestine, respondents rated South Africa most favorably at 62% positive. Turkey followed at 49%, then Iran at 45%. Among Western nations, Spain was viewed most positively at 43%.
At the other end, US policy toward Palestine was viewed negatively by 76% of respondents, the worst rating of any country surveyed. Britain (60% negative), France (58%), and Germany (55%) fared poorly as well.
The regional breakdown revealed that citizens of the Levant, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria, held the most negative views of US policy.
The United States: A decade of declining standing
The 2025 AOI revisited a battery of questions on attitudes toward the United States last asked in 2014, revealing a marked deterioration across nearly every metric.
56% of respondents expressed negative feelings toward the United States, up from 50% a decade earlier. Crucially, 54% attributed their negativity to US foreign policy rather than disagreement with American values or culture, compared to 24% who cited cultural factors.
The pattern held across every country surveyed, with Palestine (78%), Jordan (72%), and Egypt (67%) most strongly attributing their views to foreign policy.
The decline extends beyond policy grievances into practical preferences. The percentage of Arabs choosing the United States as their top destination dropped 15 to 20 points across all categories measured: tourism fell from 34 to 14%, university studies from 48 to 28%, and medical treatment from 45 to 32%. Even purchasing American products declined from 42 to 25%.
Perceptions of American society itself have also eroded. On a 1–10 scale, respondents rated the United States lower in 2024/25 than in 2014 on every characteristic measured, including democracy (6.7, down from 7.5), personal freedom (6.9, down from 7.5), tolerance (5.5, down from 5.8), and respect for minorities (5.7, down from 6.5). The only attribute where the US still scored above 8 was technological advancement (8.1, down from 8.4).
What would improve Arab views of the US?
44% of respondents said a shift in US policy toward Palestine would improve their opinion of Washington. The top three specific demands were halting military support for "Israel" (17%), protecting Palestinians from "Israel" (14%), and bringing about a just resolution to the Palestine question (13%). 9% said nothing would change their view.
Meanwhile, three-quarters of respondents agreed that US policies threaten regional stability. Between 50 and 66% viewed Washington as seeking to dominate Arab countries, impose its policies on the world, exacerbate divisions among Arab states, and prop up undemocratic governments. A majority of 55% rejected the claim that the United States protects human rights in the region.
The bottom line
The 2025 Arab Opinion Index delivers a clear verdict: the Arab public's stance on Palestine has hardened, not softened, despite normalization agreements and the passage of time.
Opposition to recognizing "Israel" stands near its all-time high, with political rather than religious reasoning driving the consensus.
The war on Gaza has deepened an already entrenched distrust of the United States, and that distrust is now bleeding into perceptions of American society, culture, and competence, areas where Washington once enjoyed residual goodwill.
For policymakers in Washington and Arab capitals pursuing normalization, the message is clear that diplomatic arrangements that bypass public opinion may produce signed agreements, but they do not produce legitimacy.