Lebanese opinions towards the war based on sectarian backgrounds

The Center for the Strategic Studies in the University of Jordan and in association with a Lebanese research center has conducted the most comprehensive opinion poll to discover and analyse the perspectives of the Lebanese people regarding the war with Israel based on sectarian backgrounds. The opinion poll linked the answers to the survey questions with the sectarian backgrounds of the respondents: Shi'te, Sunnis, Christians and Druz. The poll resulted in some very interesting and highly controversial results. I am publishing a summary of the most striking results and if you are interested in receiving an electronic copy of the survey (only in Arabic) please send me an e-mail to batirw@yahoo.com

The survey started with analyzing whether Lebanese think the capture of the two Israeli soldiers was "justified" or not. The results indicated a statistical division since 55% said the act was justified while 40.5% said it was not justified. We can get a more crystalized picture if we go into sectarian factors. For Shi'tes 88.4% said it was a justified act but it was only 21% for druz respondents. Sunnis were less enthusiastic than Shi'te with 56.4% saying the act was justified while 37.1% of Christians thought so.

Although divided by their view on the kidnapping, Lebanese were united behind the hypothesis that Israel was certain to attack Lebanon even without the act of kidnapping with 78.6% of respondents having this conviction. It was noteworthy that 70% of christians were in favor of that opinion.

Who was the big loser from the war? Lebanese are also divided here with 50.4% saying Lebanon was the big loser while 37% said Israel was the loser. It is common however to see that Lebanese are able to distinguish the magnitude of damage occuring to their country and not very much fallin' in any political propaganda. However the sectarian attitudes appear again since only 6% of Shi'ite (the most affected by war) say Lebanon was the biggest loser in comparison to 81% of Druz and 73% of Christians.

What was the definition of this war? about 46% of lebanese think it was a proxy Syrian-Iranian war ranging from 4.6% of Shi'tes and 81% of Druz. About 37% say the war aimed to influence a lebanese-Israeli peace agreement. About 45% think it was for the establishment of a new Middle East supported by US and Israeli interests.

Lebanese carry a lot of negative attitudes towards Arab Countries with 40% saying Arab positions did not rise to the aspirations of the Lebanese. Well, some others may ask with a lot of amazement what positions do the other 60% carry?

Now comes the bombshell. While asking which Arab countries had the best position regarding the aspirations of the Lebanese people Qatar took the lead with 46%. Well, good work by Al Jazeerah which have manipulated the truth that Qatar was the route of transferring the US smart bombs to Israel. The Saudi-based media empires did a good work too making Saudi Arabia in a better position (37%) that Egypt and poor Jordan that has overstretched its resources in medical and logistic aid.

As for the countries with the most negative attitude about 34% identified Syria while saudi Arabia took 22.7% of negativity and Egypt 17.5%. Again Qatar emerged winner with only 2.3% seeing its negative role. Well done Al Jazeera again.

Despite the negative attitudes towards the Syrian regime, lebanese said that Syrian people showed the second best support for the Lebanese with 25% while the Saudis took first spot with 27%. How much did Jordan score: only 6%.