Les Jones

French Support for Palestinians Waning

Friday, June 9th, 2006 | Middle East |

From The Jerusalem Post:

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.

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.

1 Comment to French Support for Palestinians Waning

Steve K.
June 8, 2006

I’m not going to get sucked into this, other than to throw out a drive-by quote:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=723105&contrassID=1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0

“Some 77 percent of Palestinians support the “prisoners’ document,” which calls for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the results of a poll released Tuesday by Birzeit University in Ramallah.”

Some extremists. Of course, Ha’aretz hates Amer…er…Israel and loves the terrorists, so feel free to ignore.

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