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November 7, 2003/Cheshvan 12 5764, Vol. 56, No. 7
Poll: Israel is threat to peace
PHILIP CARMEL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
PARIS - If Israelis needed confirmation of their fear that Europeans have a negative image of the Jewish state, a recent poll has provided it.
The poll, part of an opinion survey conducted for the European Commission called "Iraq and Peace in the World," shows that more Europeans consider Israel a threat to world peace than any other country.
Offered a simple yes or no response to the question of whether certain countries threaten world peace, 59 percent of Europeans answered in the affirmative about Israel - placing it at the top of a list that included Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Pakistan, among others.
Jewish organizations and the European Union plan to organize a seminar to examine why so many E.U. citizens consider Israel a threat to world peace, the European Commission said Nov. 4.
Among the 15-member European Union, only Italy gave Israel a score lower than 50 percent. The highest negative scores came from the Netherlands at 74 percent, Austria at 69 percent and Luxembourg at 66 percent.
Following Israel on the list of threatening states were Iran, North Korea and the United States - each with a 53 percent response. Iraq got 52 percent and Afghanistan 50 percent.
Many Israeli and Jewish leaders reacted with undisguised anger to the poll. Some of the strongest criticism came from the California-based Simon Wiesenthal Center.
"These shocking poll results defy logic and demonstrate a racist flight of fancy that only proves that a systematic campaign vilifying Israel by European institutions, leaders and the media has embedded anti-Semitism more deeply within European society than in any other period since the end of World War II," the center's dean, Rabbi Marvin Hier, said.
Similar reaction came from the Israeli mission to the European Union in Brussels, which said in a statement that "Europeans appear to be blind to the sufferings of Israeli victims" of terrorism.
The survey, conducted among more than 7,500 people representing all 15 E.U. member states, principally dealt with European opinion regarding the aftermath of the U.S.-led war in Iraq and its implications for the European Union.
European Commission President Romano Prodi said Nov. 3 that he was "very disturbed" by the findings, which he said reflected "neither the view nor the policy" of the European Union.
The results "prove the existence of a preconception which should be condemned without hesitation," Prodi's office quoted him as saying.
E.U. leaders called the poll question deficient in that Israel was the only option for respondents to blame for the Middle East conflict - something the European Jewish Congress also pointed out.
"By singling out Israel as representing the Middle East as a whole and excluding any mention of the Palestinians, those who commissioned the survey knew exactly what they were looking for," the EJC said in a statement. "As any pollster knows, 'the answer lies in the question.' "
A European Commission spokesman said that the Palestinian Authority had been left out of the poll "because it is not a state.''
The complete survey can be found at http://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/flash/fl151_iraq_full_report.pdf.
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