Transatlantic gap - Israel

| 21. August 2006 | | Jure

But the truth is that, far from being extreme, these criticisms of Israel convey the mood of millions of Europeans, rooted in what polls suggest is a hardening attitude. A YouGov poll in Britain, taken in the first two weeks of the conflict, found 63% of respondents saying that the Israeli response to Hizbullah’s attack was “disproportionate”; a similar German poll had 75% saying so.Such reactions reflect a wider European view of Israel that contrasts sharply with America’s. In a Pew Global Attitudes survey earlier this year, far more Europeans sympathised with the Palestinians than with Israel (see chart). These findings come on top of a European Union poll in 2003 that had 59% of Europeans considering Israel as a greater menace to world peace than Iran, North Korea and Pakistan. Celoten članek