As European and Arab anti-Israel activists confront the Israeli navy over its lawful naval blockade of Hamas’s terrorist regime in Gaza, a surprising new poll in Germany released Sunday reveals the anti-Semitic double standards applied to the Jewish state.
According to a YouGov poll commissioned by the Europe Israel Public Affairs/Press association (EIPA), Germans hold a significant bias against Israel’s right to defend itself and its citizens from Hamas’s attempts to smuggle in weapons, reports the European Jewish Press.
The poll found 52% of Germans would support their own country if it imposed a maritime blockade against a hostile terror regime in a neighboring region – but only 30% support Israel’s right to conduct the same exact defensive maneuver in Gaza.
Asked directly about Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, 44% of Germans said they oppose it, and of them 17% strongly oppose it.
A full 30% said goods should be allowed into Gaza without inspection by Israel or any other monitoring body, despite the constant attempts by Hamas to smuggle weapons into the coastal enclave to be used against Israeli civilians. Another 36% think the UN should be the only body allowed to supervise the influx of goods.
Just a paltry 13% supported Israel’s right to inspect humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
However, when asked hypothetically whether Germany should impose a naval blockade if a terrorist organization were to take over a neighboring country and started firing rockets on Berlin and other German cities, 52% backed a naval blockade.
“It appears that Germans feel there is one rule for them and another for Israel when it comes to national security concerns. This is a bizarre discrepancy to say the least,” said EIPA founder Rabbi Menachem Margolin.
The rabbi added, “it is clear that there are significant gaps in what Germans perceive as their own moral and security rights compared to how they view Israel’s. We gave the German public a hypothetical situation which exactly mirrored what is happening in Israel today. Alarmingly they chose to unambiguously protect themselves whilst not affording Israel the same right.”
Explaining the work of his organization, Rabbi Margolin said, “’at EIPA we work vigorously to expose the European public to the realities of daily life for Israeli citizens within the context of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Based on these findings, we need to do much more.”
A full 1,991 adults were included in the web panel survey, which was conducted in mid-June and whose figures have been weighted to get an overall picture of the adult German population.
The most recent flotilla is the third in a series of attempts by radical activists to break the naval blockade on Gaza, imposed by Israel after Hamas violently took control of Gaza from rival Fatah in 2006.
The most famous of the flotillas was the 2010 one involving the Turkish Mavi Marmara, which claimed to be providing “humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza.” The ship repeatedly defied orders to turn around and dock at the Ashdod port and ignored repeated warnings to change course, forcing IDF troops to board the vessel – only to be attacked by Islamist extremists wielding knives and metal bars. The wounded soldiers had no choice but to open fire, resulting in the deaths of ten of Islamists on board.
After an investigation, Israeli authorities discovered the vessel to be carrying no humanitarian aid – in fact, no aid supplies at all – indicating how the true goal of the provocative move was to open Gaza to free naval access, which it has consistently used to smuggle in weapons to be targeted against Israel.
