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| The European
Union released one of its periodic Eurobarometer surveys on November 2, 2003. The public opinion poll, titled
Iraq and Peace in the World, questioned more than 7,000 Europeans
on a variety of issues related to Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian
peace process and other issues. Pollsters listed 15 countries and asked
the respondents if each country was a "threat to world
peace." Fifty-nine percent answered affirmatively about Israel. Fifty-three
percent named North Korean, Iran and the United States as threats
to world peace. The Netherlands had the greatest number of respondents listing Israel as a threat – 74 percent, followed by Austria
at 69 percent. Below is the reaction in the Arab media to the
poll results. |
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“…And here I say again: where do we stand according
to all of these developments? This (the EU) is a prodigy for
us to help us to reveal the true face of the Zionist project…”
Ibrahim Nafi', “After the European Survey: The Israeli Campaign
Against Shirac, France and the European Civilization Continues”, Al- Ahram ,
November 17, 2003 |
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“…Tel Aviv and the Zionist organizations made
a stir of the European legation, which asked for this survey,
and committed arrogantly its ideological and political terror,
and rubbed their noses into the ready and preserved accusation
of anti-Semitism…
European public opinion emphasized its refusal
of the Zionist involvement in the world's affairs, amongst
it Europe. Then it announced its opposition to submit to the
Israeli expansionist strategy, which is strongly tied to the
ruling American right…”
Muhammad Basha, “Israel and the European
Survey – the Meaning and the Results, and the Necessary Move”, Al-Ahram ,
November 17, 2003 |
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“…Confident in having monopolized the field as Semites,
so as to hurl ‘anti-Semite' at all and sundry who criticize
Israel, Zionist leaders have helped shape a media that spews
the most atrocious racist abuse against others…
There remains,
however, the question as to how the Arabs can best safeguard
and promote their rights in the face of this racist onslaught
and the spurious claims spread by Zionist organizations and
the Israeli ultra right. European public opinion has had its
say: Israel presents the foremost threat to world peace. The
Arabs should take this as a signal to act. We must work, along
with other peace loving, egalitarian peoples, to drive home to
world opinion that Israel is a conventional occupying power and
a racist state that practices in word and deed some of the cruelest
forms of anti-Semitism against the Arabs”.
Ibrahim Nafi', “Israel's
Anti-Semitism”, Al-Ahram weekly ,
November 20-26, 2003 (Egypt) |
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“… It can be understood as a product of the Israeli
repression policy of the racist Zionist nature…”
Dr. As-Sayyid
‘Aliwa, “How Can We Use the Occasion among the European Public
Opinion?”, Al-Ahram , November 17, 2003 |
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“More than we brought through calls, conferences,
TV dialogues or political analysis of the conflicts between the
Arabs and America and Israel, the international public opinion
came to reveal the facts concerning the two states and their
policy in the Arab region. Perhaps the saying that indicates
the danger of Israel and Bush on international safety does not
come from vacuum, especially in a continent such as Europe… Although
the cultural gap between the European and American people brought
evidence to the rise of the European awareness… in America and
Israel there is behavior that led Nazism and Fascism to make
the world a victim of their ideologies…”
“The Wake of the World's
Conscience”, Ar-Riyadh , November
18, 2003 |
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“…The Israeli terror itself convinced 60% of Europeans
that Israel is the biggest danger for world's safety, and not
the rise in anti-Semitism as Israel and the Zionist movements
try to make out…”
Dr. Fawzi al-Asmar, “Fighting Terror: Different
and Contradicting Channels”, Ar-Riyadh , November 20,
2003 |
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The writer is talking about events that molded European
public opinion which came out in the survey concluding that:
“All of this is a natural prologue to the European unanimity
that Israel is a state that stands above the law and that it
is a source of repression, racism and human annihilation of people
that their land had been illegally taken from them…”
Mahmud Mu'awwed,
“The Jewish People is Paying the Price”, Al- Ahram ,
November 20, 2003 |
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“… This Israel – it was made clear recently that
it embodies a widespread dangerous threat… not only to the
Middle East people, but to the whole world…
These are countries
that were classified for more than half a century as one of
Zionism's strongholds. It granted great importance to the results
of the European Legation's survey of their people's public opinion,
as a passing of the stage of complexity of sin embodied through
the Holocaust, and objective distinction between anti- Semitism
and crimes of slaughtering and arresting an entire people…”
Dr. ‘Ali Fadel Hasan, “The Peace Enemies”, Al-Ahram ,
November 24, 2003 |
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