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Join on Telegram As Israel’s genocide in Gaza stretches into its second year unbated, a recent Arab Barometer survey showed a sharp decline in public support for ties with Israel across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
In Morocco, support for diplomatic alliance with Israel plummeted from 31% in 2022 to just 13% following the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7, 2023.
The poll also reveals a sharp decline in favorability toward Israel’s Western allies. Positive views of the United Kingdom dropped by 38 points and those of France fell by 10 points in Morocco.
Meanwhile, in Jordan, Mauritania, and Lebanon, the United States saw its popularity decline by 23, 19, and 15 points respectively. This backlash stems largely from the US’ unwavering support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza—through arms supplies, narrative backing, diplomatic protection, and five vetoes against ceasefire resolutions—rendering it a direct accomplice in the ongoing atrocities.
Conversely, the survey reports a favorable shift towards China – a power rivaling US and Western hegemony and one of the few global actors to openly condemn Israel’s actions. China’s favorability surged across the MENA, with a 15 points increase in Morocco alone.
The survey also confirms that Israel’s atrocities have deepened regional support for the Palestinian cause and heightened condemnation for Israel. In Morocco, a clear majority now recognize Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide and ethnic cleansing.
Interestingly, majorities across nearly all surveyed countries still express support for a two-state solution- affirming Israel’s “right to exist” even in the wake of its ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Though often framed as the most viable resolution, the two-state solution remains deeply controversial. It legitimizes Israel’s occupation and the ethnic cleansing that began in 1948, reduces Palestinian self-determination to a fragmented, non-sovereign entity on just 22% of historic Palestine. This framework also represents Israel and Palestine as equal negotiating partners, thus obscuring the reality of ongoing military occupation and apartheid.
More fundamentally, the two-state framework directly contradicts al-thawabit al-wataniyya— the principles at the core Palestinian national principles—which uphold the right of return for all refugees, full sovereignty over all of historic Palestine, and the refusal to recognize Israel as a legitimate settler-colonial entity.
These thawabit, or constants, forged through generations of resistance, affirm that justice cannot be achieved through partition or compromise with colonialism. The two-state model bypasses these foundational demands, offering instead a Western-backed framework that entrenches Israeli supremacy and validates the outcomes of dispossession.
Ultimately the study concludes a widening rift between public opinion and official policy. While Arab governments continue to avoid direct confrontation with Israel, the backlash from their own populations has become a growing obstacle to cooperation with Israel.
Anatomy of a genocide
Israel used the Al-Aqsa Flood operation as a pretext to escalate its aggression. But its live-streamed atrocities have stripped away decades of propaganda, exposing its crimes in real time to the world—and especially to the region it has terrorized since its founding.
For people across the MENA region—who have lived through Israel’s violent creation, from the Nakba, successive land grabs to the wars, intifadas, and repeated assaults on Gaza—October 7 reignited condemnation and reawakened political consciousness. It educated a new generation on the atrocities Israel has long sought to erase, along with the indigenous trees it uproots and the indigenous people it kills.
However, the genocide in Gaza goes on as Israel and its allies continue to weaponize antisemitism and the legacy of Europe’s Holocaust to shield themselves from accountability while committing atrocities that would make even Hitler blush.
The official death toll remains over 56,000 Palestinians killed since October 2023. But the real number is likely far higher, as thousands remain buried under rubble or have been blown apart—never making it to morgues or registries. Thousands will never be counted, never be named, and never be laid to rest.
UNICEF estimates that at least 50,000 children have been killed or injured. This is not mere “collateral damage” — it is a deliberate strategy at the heart of Israel’s genocidal project: to annihilate the possibility of a Palestinian future. With famine manufactured by Israel and a deadly shortage of baby formula, hundreds of children await their death sentence before they’ve even had a chance to live.
To deflect international criticism, Israel introduced the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation—a US-Israel-backed initiative that places Palestinian survival in the hands of the very powers carrying out their destruction.
Palestinians and independent aid groups have already described GHF sites as death zones. Since their launch in late May, reports—including testimony from Israeli soldiers in Israeli media—confirm that troops were ordered to shoot Palestinians approaching these aid points. Yet, in the face of starvation, many Palestinians are left with no choice but to risk death for the chance of receiving food.
Even the aid reaching Gaza is poisoned. Experts inside the Strip report finding OxyContin—a powerful, addictive opioid—mixed into flour bags. A cruel tactic seeking to inflict further suffering on a population barely clinging to life, aiming to shatter Gazans’ will and tear apart their social fabric from within.
