Israel has, almost desparetely,sought all sorts of avenues on the PR front to either project a positive image or deflect any closer examination of its appalling policies and actions in and in relation to the West Bank, Gaza and its own Arab citizens. And that ignores the almost now offensive resort bringing up the Holocaust or accusing those who dare critice Israel as anti-Zionists or anti-semites - and if the critic is Jewish, a self-hating Jew.
Well, it doesn't seem to be working - if a worldwide poll taken by the BBC is even half right. The Israelis are, basically,on the nose and looked at in the same light as North Korea and like countries. Haaretz reports:
Israel has been ranked in the top four countries that most negatively influence the word, according to a global public opinion poll conducted by the BBC.
The poll, which surveyed citizens from 22 countries around the world, places Iran in first place, with 55 percent of those surveyed rating it as a negative country. Pakistan ranked second with 51 percent, and in joint third place were Israel and North Korea, with 50 percent of respondents negatively evaluating both countries.
The broad international survey was an initiative of the BBC World Service, and carried out by GlobeScan, in collaboration with the the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland – Program on International Policy Attitudes. Over 24,000 people from 22 countries took part in the poll, which was conducted from December 2011 to February 2012.
The survey’s findings on global attitudes toward Israel are worrying indeed. Last year’s survey already that attitudes toward Israel were negative, but the situation has become more serious this year: Some 47 percent of participants in the 2011 survey had negative views of Israel’s influence on the world, but this year the number has gone up to 50 percent.
Where do the negative evaluations of Israel come from? Some 45 percent of participants said that Israeli government policy causes them to see Israel in a negative light, and 27 percent said their negative evaluation stemmed from the state’s treatment of its own people. In contrast, 29 percent of those who said they had a positive view of Israel said it was because of their sympathy with Judaism, while a further 26 percent said it was because of Israel’s foreign policy.
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