THE WISDOM FUND: News & Views
October 30, 2003
EUobserver

Poll: Israel and US Biggest Threats to World Peace

by Andrew Beatty

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Over half of Europeans think that Israel now presents the biggest threat to world peace according to a controversial poll requested by the European Commission.

According to the same survey, Europeans believe the United States contributes the most to world instability along with Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and North Korea. . . .

The European Commission is coming under fire for publishing the results of a number of questions - relating to Iraqi reconstruction - while failing to publish the results which revealed the extent of mistrust of Israel and the United States in Europe, according to Spanish daily El Pais. . . .

The poll, conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres/ EOS Gallup Europe, was conducted between 8 and 16 of October.

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Poll: Bush 'Biggest Threat to Justice and Peace'," The Wisdom Fund, November 9, 2002

["Which country really poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003? TIME asks for readers' views."--Results to date: North Korea 5.6 %; Iraq 6.5 %; The United States 87.9 %; Total Votes Cast: 673,027 -- "TIME Magazine," March 10, 2003]

Al Goodman, "Polls: 90 percent of Spaniards against war," CNN, March 29, 2003

William Pfaff, "A fiction shattered by America's aggression," International Herald Tribune, November 1, 2003

[The survey, conducted in October, of 500 people from each of the EU's member nations included a list of 15 countries with the question, 'tell me if in your opinion it presents or not a threat to peace in the world'. Israel was reportedly picked by 59 per cent of those interviewed.--Peter Beaumont, "Israel outraged as EU poll names it a threat to peace," Guardian, November 2, 2003]

[Only 5 percent of those polled said they believed the United States invaded Iraq "to assist the Iraqi people," and only 1 percent believed it was to establish democracy there.--Walter Pincus, "Skepticism About U.S. Deep, Iraq Poll Shows," Washington Post, November 12, 2003]

Richard Morin and Dana Milbank, "Most Think Truth Was Stretched to Justify Iraq War," Washington Post, February 13, 2004

Jeff Sallot, "Bush lied to justify Iraq war, Canada right to stay out: poll," Globe and Mail, March 15, 2004

[BBC World asked 1,500 viewers of its news and international channel for the biggest problems in the world with 52% saying the US and globalisation.--"'US is bigger threat than terror'," BBC News, April 9, 2004]

[the findings of a new survey of African attitudes, thought to be the biggest-ever of its kind . . . 54 per cent of the interviewees - not just among Muslims - saw the US as a threat.--"Us and them," Independent, October 18, 2004]

[Fifty-eight per cent of the 22,000 who took part in the poll, commissioned by the BBC World Service, said they expected Mr Bush to have a negative impact on peace and security, compared with only 26% who considered him a positive force.--Ewen MacAskill, "World fears new Bush era," Guardian, January 20, 2005]

[That put the United States behind China (69 percent positive), and not even in the overall Top 10 countries, regions or groups that Australians respect.--Raymond Bonner, "U.S. Image in Australia Isn't So Good, Poll Finds," New York Times, March 29, 2005]

[15 of the 23 countries surveyed said the US had a negative influence in the world.--Raymond Bonner, "Europe influence seen as positive," BBC, April 6, 2005]

["America is less a beacon of hope than a dangerous force to be countered." So says a report by a nine-member State Department ad hoc advisory committee--"U.S. Needs to Go Goodwill Hunting," Washington Post, September 30, 2005]

Julian Borger and Uki Goni, "Bush feels hand of God as poll ratings slump," Guardian, November 5, 2005

[Asked to name the two nations that present the greatest threat to regional peace, 70 percent named Israel, 63 percent the United States, and 11 percent Britain. Only 6 percent named our bete noire Iran.--Patrick J. Buchanan, "Might the Arabs Have a Point?," American Conservative, January 16, 2006]

Brian Knowlton, "Image of U.S. falls again," International Herald Tribune, June 13, 2006

Ewen MacAskill, "US seen as a bigger threat to peace than Iran, worldwide poll suggests," Guardian, June 15, 2006

[30 per cent of respondents believe the U.S. is the greatest threat to global stability.--"Europeans See U.S. as Threat to Global Stability," Angus Reid, September 5, 2006]

[British voters see George Bush as a greater danger to world peace than either the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, or the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.--Julian Glover, "British believe Bush is more dangerous than Kim Jong-il," Guardian, November 3, 2006]

[The World Service survey, conducted in 25 nations including the US, found that three in four respondents disapproved of how Washington had dealt with Iraq.

The majority of the 26,381 respondents also disapproved of the way five other foreign policy areas had been handled.--"View of US's global role 'worse'," BBC News, January 23, 2007]

Simon Tisdall, "Environment and US policy top global fears," Guardian, June 28, 2007

[In the US itself, North Korea and Iran are seen as the biggest risks. However, the youngest US respondents share the Europeans' view that theirs is the biggest threat, with 35 per cent of American 16- to 24-year-olds identifying it as the chief danger to stability.--Daniel Dombey and Stanley Pignal, "Europeans see US as threat to peace," Financial Times, July 1, 2007]

Lydia Saad, "Federal Debt, Terrorism Considered Top Threats to U.S.," gallup.com, June 4, 2010

[Imagine if Iran - or any other country - did a fraction of what America and Israel do at will.--Noam Chomsky, "Why America and Israel Are the Greatest Threats to Peace," alternet.org, September 3, 2012]

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