Are the Palestinians losing support in Europe?

If this poll is accurate, indeed they are:

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, who has been briefing Israeli leaders on his findings in the past few days. There has not necessarily been “a rush to Israel” but there has been a “crash” in backing for the Palestinians, he noted.

Greenberg, a key pollster for president Clinton who also worked with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, conducted the surveys for the Israel Project, a US-based non-profit organization devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel.

Greenberg told The Jerusalem Post that the shifts in attitudes reflected in the surveys were so dramatic that he “redid” some of the polls to ensure there had been no error.

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.

Somebody should inform the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in the UK, who recently voted to “boycott” Israeli academic institutions for their alleged “apartheid polices” towards the Palestinians.

It should be noted that the NATFHE’s symbolic boycott vote was only in effect for three days as they merged with the AUT, and the merged group will not be obligated to honor the NATFHE’s vote. However, as the Haaretz Daily noted last month:

In April 2005, the British Association of University Teachers (AUT) decided to impose an academic boycott on Bar-Ilan and Haifa universities, but subsequently reversed the decision.

It’s been speculated that the AUT reversed itself due to the threat of a lawsuit from the University of Haifa. In any event, the fact that the AUT would initially support such a call tells you where their sympathies are, so even though they won’t be obligated to honor the NATFHE’s support of a boycott, don’t be surprised if they – as a group – come up with something very closely resembling what the NATFHE voted on.

Hat tip: Atlas Shrugs