62% of Germans Have Unfavorable Opinion of Israeli Government
A Friday Chicago Sun-Times editorial argues that President Obama must continue to work with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and support Israel. Quote: “It is in the U.S.’ interest.” Can you please explain why it is in our best interest? What exactly does the country of Israel do for the U.S.? Trade oil or other natural resource? Technology? Money for protection? I am not extremely well versed in foreign policy, and to be honest, I only know what I read in your pages every day at work. It has always been a grey, unclear area to me. - Rob Ogan, Forest Glen
January 26, 2015
AP - Seventy years after the
liberation of Auschwitz, some 58 percent of Germans say the past should
be consigned to history, while three-quarters of Israelis reject the
idea of putting the past behind them.
Some 48 percent
of Germans also say their opinion of today's Israel is poor and the
Germans' view of the Israeli government is even worse, with 62 percent
expressing a negative opinion.
Israelis
have a much better view of today's Germany, with 68 percent saying they
have a positive image of the country, while only 24 percent have a poor
opinion.
The figures are the
results of a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation released Monday. The
foundation questioned 1,000 Germans and 1,001 Israelis for the poll; the
margin of error was 3 percent.
According
to the study, the perception of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has an
increasingly dominant impact on the way Germans view Israel as a whole.
Some
35 percent of Germans equate Israeli policies toward the Palestinians
with Nazi policies toward the Jews, an increase from 30 percent in 2007,
when the foundation conducted a similar study.
Nonetheless, a
majority of both Israelis and Germans believe that Germany still has a
special responsibility toward Israel because of its history.
During the Third Reich, the Germans killed 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust, many of them at the Auschwitz death camp.
"In
Germany the persecution of Jews is viewed as a dark chapter in German
history, but not as an essential part of its identity; quite the
opposite, Germans would prefer it as an anomaly," the authors of the
study wrote in an analysis of their findings.
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