Middle East Monitor / June 12, 2023
The vast majority of Jordanians – 84 per cent – reject any form of relations with Israel, a new poll commissioned by the Washington Institute for Studies revealed yesterday.
The poll, conducted between March and April this year, showed that despite being officially at peace with Israel for almost three decades, the Jordanians across all age groups stand opposed to having business deals with Israeli companies even if they would help their economy.
According to the poll, 76 per cent of Jordanians categorically refused to see their country or any other Arab country receiving humanitarian aid from Israel, even during emergency humanitarian cases such as an earthquake or other natural disaster.
As many as 72 per cent of Jordanians supported the protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government, and considered them a “positive development”.
The poll showed that 53 per cent of Jordanians welcome the restoration of ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and its positive impact on the region, while 44 per cent of respondents viewed the move as “negative”.
Although more than half of Jordanians support the resumption of Saudi-Iranian relations, 45 per cent of them consider Iran a rival country, and 42 per cent consider it an enemy. However, they rejected launching any major American or Israeli attack on Tehran.
Jordanian attitudes towards Arab cooperation with Israel to fight Iran were also largely negative, as 69 per cent opposed such cooperation, and in the same context 59 per cent of respondents opposed that an Arab country possesses a nuclear bomb in order to confront Iran.
