YouGov on Israel
The Telegraph have published the most detailed poll so far on attitudes towards the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah. As in ICM’s poll earlier this week, the survey suggests there is little public backing for Israel’s actions; only 17% of people think that Israel’s response to the kidnapping of her soldiers has been proportionate, with 63% saying it is a disproportionate response. Only 15% of people think that Israel is indeed doing all it can to minimise civilian casualties (59% disagree), and 49% of people think that it is fair to say that Israel is targetting the whole of Lebanon, not just Hizbollah (23% disagree).
Asked about Hizbollah and Hamas, only 9% of people think it is possible for Israel to stop their attacks using armed force and only 27% of people think that the governments of Lebanon and Palestine would have the ability to stop the attacks if they wanted to (personally I wouldn’t have conbined the questions - the situation with the Lebanese government and Hizbollah is obviously somewhat different to that in Palestine where Hamas is the elected government). Only 12% of people think that Israel’s attacks into Lebanon will weaken support for Hizbollah, with a majority (54%) thinking it will increase their support in the Arab world.
Looking towards the future people are broadly pessimistic. Very few (10%) think the present conflict will make Israel more secure, with 40% thinking it will make the situation worse. Looking 10-15 years down the line 72% of people think Israel will be under attack as at present or in an even worse situation. Only 4% think she will be at peace with secure borders…the same proportion of people who think Israel will have ceased to exist.
Closer to home, 53% of people think the Blair government’s handling of the affair has been poor or very poor, with only 6% thinking it has been good or excellent. These figures are only slightly better than opinions of how the US government has handled the affair (and we have seen in the past the low opinion that the British public hold of the US government). Only 15% of people think Tony Blair is making up his own mind and taking his own line, with 64% thinkling he is doing whatever the Americans tell him.
Filed under: YouGov
I haven’t looked at the detail of the poll but I wonder how many respondents really understand the situation or would admit to not fully understanding it. Is there any indication of this in the poll results ?
The news sites listed on the left which so many people would refer to contain reporting (and comment in the newspapers) that is largely one-sided and would support the poll findings.
Roland - I would argue that the situation is more likely to be the other way around: the newspapers, perceiving their readers to be largely of the belief that Israel is over-reacting, have tempered their coverage to fit. Certainly I can’t imagine the editor of the Independent, when presented with a choice between a front page picture of Israeli or Lebanese civilian casualties deciding to run with the Israeli injured. Independent readers want to read how bad Israel is being.
Roland,
What evidence do you have that the public don’t understand the issues, with regard to the conflict in lebanon as opposed to any other issue that they are polled on.
Even if the results were to be based on ignoranced, and I see no reason why they should be, “Perception is All” in politics, whether what people believe is true or not isn’t the issue the fact that they believe it will be what shaped events.
Peter.
Peter,
I don’t have any evidence, just a hunch. I wondered whether anything in the poll results supported that hunch.
David, Valid point.
Cheers
Roland.
Roland - the full tables should be up on the YouGov website later today. They do include a couple of questions that the Telegraph didn’t use, but none of them can really be used to gauge people’s factual knowledge of the situation.
One thing bothers me very much about all the reporting on the current crisis in the Middle East.
Hizbollah must be laughing themselves sick with all the publicity they are getting.
Nobody pints the finger at them for putting the civilians at risk by placing themselves (Hizbollah) next door to the families. And knowing that when Israel retaliates all the blame is put on them and not Hizbollah.
When Lebanons Prime Minister was assassinated, the call was for Syria to pull out its army from Lebanon, but in its place they left Hizbollah. so what is the difference.
Hizbollah planned all of this in the munutist detail with the aid from other Israeli hating nations.
The only way this is going to be sorted out is for the United Nations and the Arab League to get together and com,e to an agreement on the borders and to re-align borders.
John
On the subject of “proportionality”, I’d be interested in knowing what those polled (and indeed all those pundits who go on about Israel’s disrpoportionate response) think would have been a “proportionate” response on the part of Israel to 6 years of unremitting rocket attacks by Hezbullah.
Perception is all.
But in this case irrelivent to a British election, at least for now. However what it does show is the power of the media to reignite the flames of anti-semitism that have smoldered in British sociaty for thousands of years. One good thing is that this issue is going to become so big over the next 6 months, the media will in the end, HAVE to start telling it as it really is, whether they want to or not.
It would have been better if the poll had been conducted by asking, how much do you agree with this statement rateing 1-5 method. This would have given us a better idear of the publics real leval of interest and understanding of the situation.
Oh dear - criticise Israel and instantly face accusations of anti-semitism! As a staunch atheist I respect the rights of all to hold and adhere to their own belief systems, but equally I reserve the right to criticise whoever or whatever I perceive to be wrong. In the case of Israel I am of the firm belief that the current action is WHOLLY disproportionate. The UK has taken enormous criticism for its role in Iraq, in particular in respect of the numbers of civilian casualties, yet in Israel we see an even more cavalier approach that is in my view much less defensible.
Yes, I would agree that it is equally appropriate to criticise Hizbullah for its tactics that jeapordise the lives of ordinary people, and for its continued attacks on Israel, but lets not forget that Hizbullah is NOT the Lebanese government and therefore has no mandate to act or speak for the people of Lebanon. An end to attacks by Hizbullah will not come through alienation of the people and government of Lebanon. That will merely lead to the international alienation of Israel. Keeping the international community and the Lebanese govt “on-side” is incredibly important if Israel have a genuine desire for a peaceful and secure settlement.
I am amazed at the hints now emerging - collusion etc.
It gets worse and worse.
The only remedy is concerted international action to enforce both Israel and all neighbours to agree to go back to very near 1967 boundaries and to stop miaction.