MESOP MIDEAST WATCH: REVEALING NEW POLL DATA FROM LEBANON AND EGYPT

Featuring David Pollock and Carol Silber – Fikra Forum – December 16, 2021 Responses from recent surveys clarify how each public is feeling about their government’s performance at home, China’s growing influence, Iran’s regional activities, and a host of other issues.

According to a rare Lebanese public opinion poll commissioned

by The Washington Institute last month, the country’s fractious sects finally agree on something: the government is failing at its most essential tasks. Nevertheless, the deep, continuing divide between Shia and other groups regarding close ties with Iran remains a high hurdle to any fundamental political reforms. Ninety-six percent or even more in every major group—Shia, Sunni, Christian, and Druze—say their government is doing “too little” to address each of the following problems: “dealing with our growing economic problems and people’s daily hardships”; “reducing the level of corruption in our economic and political life”; and “sharing the burden of taxes and other obligations to the government in a fair manner”…

View the full Lebanon analysis and associated charts on Fikra Forum.

New public opinion data from Egypt shows a virtual tie between the United States and China as perceived partners for Cairo. Narrow majorities call relations with both powers “important.” In sharp contrast, only small minorities voice favorable views of ties with either Israel or Iran. On domestic issues, around half the public is privately dissatisfied with government efforts on favoritism, individual freedoms, and everyday economic management—and around half sympathize at least somewhat with public protests against corruption…

View the full Egypt analysis and associated charts on Fikra Forum.

David Pollock is the Bernstein Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of Project Fikra. Carol Silber is a research assistant with Fikra Forum.
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