Posted on 06/03/2006 6:22:12 PM PDT by white trash redneck
New public opinion surveys conducted among "opinion elites" in Europe show that support for the Palestinians has fallen precipitously, according to a leading international pollster, Stan Greenberg, who has been briefing Israeli leaders on his findings in the past few days. There has not necessarily been "a rush to Israel" but there has been a "crash" in backing for the Palestinians, he noted.
Greenberg, a key pollster for president Clinton who also worked with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, conducted the surveys for the Israel Project, a US-based non-profit organization devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel.
Greenberg told The Jerusalem Post that the shifts in attitudes reflected in the surveys were so dramatic that he "redid" some of the polls to ensure there had been no error.
He singled out France as the country where attitudes had changed most dramatically. Three years ago, 60 percent of French respondents said they took a side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and of that 60%, four out of five backed the Palestinians. Today, by contrast, 60% of French respondents did not take a side in the conflict, and support for the Palestinians had dropped by half among those who did express a preference.
Greenberg said the figures were still being finalized, and so did not go into further details. But shifts such as these, he said, represented "an incredible pace of change," with significant consequences.
Until recently, he said, "It was hard for Israel to communicate its interests in its own name" in Europe. "It was hard for Israel to be heard. Nowadays, it is heard on its own interests, such as Iran and Hamas." Much of the "old sense of hostility," had dissipated, he said.
At the root of the change, said Greenberg, was a fundamental remaking in Europe of the "framework" through which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is viewed.
Three years ago, he said, the conflict was perceived "in a post-colonial framework."
There was a sense "that Europe could cancel out its own colonial history by taking the 'right' side" - the Palestinian side. Yasser Arafat was viewed as "an anti-colonial, liberation leader." The US was seen as a global imperial power, added Greenberg, and the fact that it was backing Israel only added to the "instinctive" sense of the Palestinians as victims.
France, with the largest Muslim population - moreover an entirely Arab Muslim population - with the direct experience of Algeria and the most anti-US positions, was most prey to this mindset.
Today, by contrast, the Europeans "are focused on fundamentalist Islam and its impact on them," he said. The Europeans were now asking themselves "who is the moderate in this conflict, and who is the extremist? And suddenly it is the Palestinians who may be the extremists, or who are allied with extremists who threaten Europe's own society."
An increasing proportion of Europeans are concluding that "maybe the Palestinians are not the colonialist victims" after all.
Furthermore, the pollster said, the question of which side held "absolute," uncompromising positions had also shifted - to Israel's benefit. The sea-change in attitudes, he said, had been accelerated by the fact that former prime minister Ariel Sharon, who had been widely regarded as an ideological "absolutist," had surprised Europe with his disengagement initiative. And at about the same time, the Palestinians had chosen the "absolutists" of Hamas as their leadership.
An opinion poll for the Israel Project among "opinion elites" in the US released last month found that 80% believed that US should not fund the Palestinian Authority until its Hamas-led government renounced violence, recognized Israel and ended terrorism, 93% said Palestinian leaders must end the culture of hate that encourages children to become suicide bombers and 78% had a favorable view of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's "realignment" plan. Asked if they considered themselves supporters of Israel or supporters of the Palestinians, 58% in that survey said they backed Israel, while 10% said they supported the Palestinians. Another 33% said they supported neither side, were undecided or didn't know.
Yeah, a little first-hand experience with the problem will do that. ;)
lol...the Euros are a bit slow on the uptake.
IF the muslims begin to destroy European culture they will come crying for us to do something. France being the first to squeel to the world for help.
But when you can't even fool a frog, it's time to give up.
About time they pulled their heads out of. . . sorry.
Of course. Backing Israel would mean that they would have to throw off their antisemitism and *admit* the US was right about Israel. Both would be very unpalatable for European elites.
I want to know who the 7% are...my take is that half are just too stupid to comprehend the question while the other half simply needs to disappear.
Remember the poll was about "opinion elites". Those 7% probably represent our Noam Chomskys and Ward Churchills.
"The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."
No, that should be "US should not fund the Palestinian Authority", full stop.
Do we fund Trinidad and Tobago? Do we fund Luxembourg? Besides their being bloodthirsty murderers, what conceivable reason is there to fund Palestinians, above anyone else on earth?
When the French get down on their knees and beg forgiveness before a shrine to murderered Harkis, I'll start taking them seriously. You know, the ones they sold out to Algerian murderers 40 years ago, without ever so much as a hint of remorse.
IT IS TOO LATE.
Dhimmiphobia.
The euro weeniees will ultimately cough up public money to keep bankrolling the palis. They deserve each other.
I'll believe in a change when their vote vis a vis Israel changes at the UN and other International bodies or Hell freezes over. Which ever comes first.
The hatred of Jes/Israel is so deep that they may actually rationalize that although the "Palestinians" are not the victims they imagined, the Israelis remain the culprit nonetheless.
Only an intellectual is capable of the grotesque mental contortions one has to make in order to see this through an anti-colonial lens. One has to stretch the description of Israel into a "colony," posit the United States as a colonizer despite the fact that the bulk of Israeli citizens came from Europe, and ignore one's own country's culpability in the war that produced Israel, WWII. That's for starters. One then has to squint hard enough to see the people whose markets and buses are being attacked by suicide bombers as the aggressors in the matter.
Yasser Arafat was absolutely fluent in the sort of ideological cant that played to this audience, as were/are many of the African "anti-colonialists" such as Amin, Bokassa, Mobotu Sese Seko, Mugabe, etc, etc... This is all well and fine when attempting to justify atrocities that are a thousand miles or more away. When it's on your own doorstep things begin to look a little different.
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