European support for the Palestinians has dropped
dramatically according to American poll expert Stan Greenberg
who has studied recent European attitudes towards Israel and
the Palestinians. According to an article this week in the
Jerusalem Post by Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz who
spoke with Greenberg about the findings that he has been
presenting to Israeli leaders, loss of faith in the
Palestinians has not been accompanied by renewed support for
Israel.
Greenberg conducted the surveys for the Israel Project, a US-
based nonprofit organization. He said that he was so
surprised by some of the results that he repeated some of the
sampling to be sure that there was no mistake.
In France, for example, as recently as three years ago, 60
percent said they supported one side in the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict, and eighty percent of those taking
sides backed the Palestinians. In the recent poll, 60 percent
said that they took no side in the conflict, and among those
who did support one side, only forty percent took the side of
the Palestinians.
Greenberg was not yet ready to release the full details, but
he said that it is clear that the results show a dramatic
change that has taken place extremely rapidly. Much of the
"old sense of hostility" towards Israel had dissipated, he
told Horovitz.
The Palestinians are now seen within the context of the
larger issue of fundamentalist Islam and the way it is having
a direct impact on France in its daily life, with its
millions of resident Moslems. In the past the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict was seen more in the abstract, as a
"post-colonial" issue, with Israel cast as the colonizer and
the Palestinians as the victims.
The Europeans are now asking themselves, "Who is the moderate
in this conflict, and who is the extremist?" Against the
backdrop of the worldwide Islamic movement, they are
beginning to see the Palestinians as the extremists, and also
as allied with the other extremists, some of whom threaten
Europe itself as witnessed in the extensive riots last
fall.
The perception of which side held "absolute," uncompromising
positions has also shifted to Israel's benefit. The change in
attitudes, according to Greenberg, was helped by the fact
that former prime minister Ariel Sharon, who had been widely
regarded as an ideological "absolutist," surprised Europe
with his disengagement initiative. And at the same time as
Sharon was preparing to withdraw settlers, the Palestinians
chose Hamas as their leadership. As Israel painfully withdrew
from Gaza, the Palestinian leadership still spoke of bloody
conflict.
As reported elsewhere in this issue, even in France there is
a new foundation, Fondation France-Israel, to promote
cooperation in high-tech investment, research, industry, and
other areas.
An opinion poll for the Israel Project among "opinion elites"
in the US released last month found that 80 percent believed
that US should not fund the Palestinian Authority until its
Hamas-led government renounced violence, recognized Israel
and ended terrorism. Asked if they considered themselves
supporters of Israel or supporters of the Palestinians, 58
percent in that survey said they backed Israel, while 10
percent said they supported the Palestinians. Another 33
percent said they supported neither side, were undecided or
didn't know.
