In a new survey of 15 Arab countries, Saudis appeared to be the least opposed to the idea of recognizing Israel. Some 61% of Saudis were against the idea — compared to a regional average of 87% — while 35% refused to answer or said “don’t know.”
The latter response may just be a hedge against challenging the Saudi regime itself, which is widely seen to be interested in moving toward an agreement, albeit slowly, with Israel. The reality may be that most of the 35% actually side with the majority opinion and there is near total opposition to the Abraham Accords in the kingdom, “which I suspect [Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman recognizes as he makes his decisions,” wrote Marc Lynch, director at George Washington University’s Project on Middle East Political Science.
The idea of normalizing relations with Israel is wildly unpopular among Arabs — 8 in 10 consider Palestine a collective Arab cause — according to the annual survey by the Arab Center in Doha, which involved 40,000 face-to-face interviews across the region.