Support for Palestinians "crashing"
One of the most gratifying news items seen in a long time was an exclusive report in the J'sam Post of a poll in Europe that support for the Palestinians is "crashing". The poll was carried out by leading international pollster Stan Greenberg, who was Bill Clinton's pollster, for the Israel Project, a US based non-profit organization, that showed for example that while three years ago 48% of French gave support for the Palestinian cause, that figure has provisionally now gone down to 16%!
There are four reasons one can cite for this precipitous decline:
1. The death of Yasir Arafat, who was a well known figure around which Palestinian support had rallied
2. The corruption in the PA that became evident after his death
3. The turn-around of the Sharon Government and the implementation of the disengagement from Gaza
4. The election of Hamas as the representatives of the Palestinian people
The conclusion is that once Arafat passed from the scene, support for the Palestinian cause as a clear colonial situation became soft. The fact that the Palestinian people remained in dire poverty after billions of dollars, mainly from the EU and the US, had been poured into the PA, tended to show that their poverty could not be ascribed to Israel alone. Also, the decision of PM Sharon to formulate and implement the Gaza disengagement suprised many critics of Israel, since Sharon was doing precisely what they had been agitating for for a long time. Yet, they saw that it made no difference to the Palestinians. While Israel was softening its stance, the Palestinians were hardening theirs. They destroyed former Israeli facilities in Gaza, instead of making use of them, they increased their rocket attacks from Gaza, they continued suicide bombings, and they voted in a hard-line Islamist terrorist organization, Hamas. This raised the question, what in fact could Israel do to satisfy them, and the answer was evidently nothing.
Further, Hamas sounds like and is more of a terrorist organization similar to those that have inflicted casualties on the West, than it appears to be a genuine liberation movement. Seeing the commonality of Hamas dogma and that espoused by al Qaeda and others, gave naieve liberal supporters of the Palestinian cause pause. What indeed had they been supporting all this time? Some also became aware that Muslim organizations, such as those in Britain, had effectively taken over the anti-Iraq war movement, that now consisted of some extremist leftists (the Socialist Worker's Party) and the Muslims (the British Muslim Alliance).
In Holland, for example, the attitude towards the Muslim minority (6%) has hardened after the horrible murder of Theo van Gogh. Throughout Europe the hardening of attitudes towards Muslims has translated into stronger immigration laws and less support for the Palestinian cause. In the US, support for Israel has increased to 58% and for the Palestinians is at an all-time low of 10%.
Nevertheless, "two swallows don't make a summer." Before we start celebrating, it seems that reduction of support for the Palestinian cause has not fully translated into support for Israel. Many leftists and liberals still feel that Israel is not worthy of their support, but nonetheless, Israel's moves have given them pause, and they perceive that the conflict is not so black and white as they previously thought. Now they see shades of gray, that translate into a weakening of support for the Palestinians and a tendency to give Israel more of the benefit of the doubt.
There are four reasons one can cite for this precipitous decline:
1. The death of Yasir Arafat, who was a well known figure around which Palestinian support had rallied
2. The corruption in the PA that became evident after his death
3. The turn-around of the Sharon Government and the implementation of the disengagement from Gaza
4. The election of Hamas as the representatives of the Palestinian people
The conclusion is that once Arafat passed from the scene, support for the Palestinian cause as a clear colonial situation became soft. The fact that the Palestinian people remained in dire poverty after billions of dollars, mainly from the EU and the US, had been poured into the PA, tended to show that their poverty could not be ascribed to Israel alone. Also, the decision of PM Sharon to formulate and implement the Gaza disengagement suprised many critics of Israel, since Sharon was doing precisely what they had been agitating for for a long time. Yet, they saw that it made no difference to the Palestinians. While Israel was softening its stance, the Palestinians were hardening theirs. They destroyed former Israeli facilities in Gaza, instead of making use of them, they increased their rocket attacks from Gaza, they continued suicide bombings, and they voted in a hard-line Islamist terrorist organization, Hamas. This raised the question, what in fact could Israel do to satisfy them, and the answer was evidently nothing.
Further, Hamas sounds like and is more of a terrorist organization similar to those that have inflicted casualties on the West, than it appears to be a genuine liberation movement. Seeing the commonality of Hamas dogma and that espoused by al Qaeda and others, gave naieve liberal supporters of the Palestinian cause pause. What indeed had they been supporting all this time? Some also became aware that Muslim organizations, such as those in Britain, had effectively taken over the anti-Iraq war movement, that now consisted of some extremist leftists (the Socialist Worker's Party) and the Muslims (the British Muslim Alliance).
In Holland, for example, the attitude towards the Muslim minority (6%) has hardened after the horrible murder of Theo van Gogh. Throughout Europe the hardening of attitudes towards Muslims has translated into stronger immigration laws and less support for the Palestinian cause. In the US, support for Israel has increased to 58% and for the Palestinians is at an all-time low of 10%.
Nevertheless, "two swallows don't make a summer." Before we start celebrating, it seems that reduction of support for the Palestinian cause has not fully translated into support for Israel. Many leftists and liberals still feel that Israel is not worthy of their support, but nonetheless, Israel's moves have given them pause, and they perceive that the conflict is not so black and white as they previously thought. Now they see shades of gray, that translate into a weakening of support for the Palestinians and a tendency to give Israel more of the benefit of the doubt.
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:58 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home