Is it possible that Europeans are finally coming to their senses?
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.
Now, let’s think. What could possibly be changing the mind of the European elites?
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.
What was it that happened in France to change their minds? Here’s hint: Muslim “youths” rioting. And it turns out that this may well have been the wake-up call that Europe needed:
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.
[…] 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.
The funniest thing in the article? Greenberg was so shocked by the change in numbers that he did some of the poll again, to make sure he wasn’t wrong.
I think the constant attacks by Muslims on Western nations, and the constant discovery of Muslim citizens of Western nations willing to blow up their fellow citizens because of “the treatment of Muslims worldwide” — always the reason they give for killing innocent Westerners — is finally making Europe realize that there is a threat within its borders. And that threat is not the Jews.
It is a welcome trend, yet there are enough loonies who are so blinded in their belief, that it will take more than a riot or suicide bomb to open their eyes.
Actually, when something like that happens in Europe, like in Madrid or London, then they blame Israel anyway.
We’ll see what happens. Woland is right. In fact I could imagine that the Euros turn virulanetly anti-Muslim while at the same time becoming more antisemitic.
Muslim attacks are liable to drive many Euros to the likes of Le Pen and Haider. That is hardly good news for Jews.
Such a response to the jihadis was something I’ve been nervous about for some time. There are five billion non-Muslims in the world, and the jihadis have been attacking almost all of them. Do the Muslims who fail to help suppress the jihadis ASAP, and the ones passively or actively supporting them, really want everybody else to conclude “The problem is Muslims; no more Muslims, no more problem”? That is why I have often said that Bush and the dreaded neocons are the Muslims’ best friends, for they, like me, want to put down this jihad nonsense before that point is reached.
What will the Euros do if they turn against the Muslims in general over the attacks of the jihadis? One thing would be to simply expel all the Muslims while they are comparatively few in numbers. Yeah, Jews know all about that too. The Arabs set the modern precedent, by throwing all the Jews out of their countries after Israel was established. Nice going guys.
An editorial in the Jerusalem Post indicates that, according to this poll of “European elites,” there has been no significant increase in support for Israel. Instead, the rising sentiment may be “a pox on both your houses.” Is this really ground for celebration?
Who is celebrating this news? I’m sorry, but I missed the party hats and noisemakers. And it’s my blog, so I’m really pissed about that.
Tell me, Ben, if the news is true — even if the world isn’t thinking any better of Israel — how is this not a good thing? The world already hates the Jews. The world has always hated the Jews. If they’ve finally begun to realize that maybe the palestinians are not the innocent little indigenous natives thrown out of their homes by the evil Zionist hordes — how is that not a good thing?