Lessons of Anti-Israel Euro-Poll by Joseph Farah November 10, 2003 WorldNetDaily.com What's the lesson of the European poll showing nearly 60 percent of those surveyed believe Israel is the greatest threat to peace in the world today? The lesson is that Israel's semi-suicidal quest for peace at any price is not respected by the world. In fact, it demonstrates Israel's concessions to Arab myth-making and the wholesale fabrication of reality has backfired. The world clearly believes the propaganda ploy by Yasser Arafat and the so- called Palestinian movement. Israel's gravest mistake was yielding to international pressure to compromise its own security for peace with people who have no desire to live with them in peace and harmony. It's not too late to reverse course. Perhaps the Euro-poll will shake the Israel public from its sleepwalk. Not since the 1948 war of independence has Israel felt so isolated and besieged – feelings that could indeed increase the danger not only to the nation's security but to regional peace as well. The poll was conducted in 15 European countries. In the survey, 500 people from each of the 15 E.U. countries were asked which state they regard as most dangerous to world peace. According to the results, 59 percent of the people polled believe Israel tops the list, and 52 percent positioned the U.S. in second place. What's absurd about the poll results is that Israel is one of the few countries in the world earmarked for extinction and destruction by enemies around the world. Israel has never sought to destroy its enemies. On the contrary, Israel has weakened its own security position by arming its enemies, providing them land and giving them money in a futile and foolish effort to avert future wars. That's Israel's real mistake – not aggression, not suppression, not repression, but appeasement. Just look at how this survey has been used already. Militant Arabs and Muslims, especially organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups, have already declared the European survey to be a call for a "final solution" – meaning the ultimate holocaust for Jews. Americans should take special note of the fact that the U.S., too, is viewed as a major danger to world peace in the poll. We're living in a time when right is wrong and wrong is right, when truth is seen as a lie and lies are seen as truth. How can anyone in their right mind believe the tiny sliver of a land called Israel, with fewer than 7 million people, could actually represent the gravest threat to peace in the world? Clearly, to a great extent, the world has gone mad. Those who call only for multilateral foreign policy decisions and for greater global governance should keep this in mind. Israel has done what no other nation in the world has done in the last three decades – sacrifice over and over again its own security interests and concerns in a breathtaking, selfless and often ill- advised crusade for peace with duplicitous neighbors. For that, it is perceived not only as a pariah nation, but the biggest threat to peace in the world today – worse than Iran, worse than North Korea, worse than Syria. The more efforts Israel makes for peace, the more it is seen as a warmonger. The further Israel goes in making concessions to its enemies, the more it is seen as the aggressor. The more evidence mounts that Israel is an embattled target in the Mideast, fewer can see the truth. This is an illustration of why it's time for Israel to put its own national security interests first and world opinion a distant second. That's a good lesson for the United States, too.