by Ariel Bolstein
The difference between what people on the street think and what is presented by the media elite as the "right opinion" has never been greater.
The
doctors of late singer Meir Ariel recommended, as his song Terminal
Lominelt tells, a monthly visit to the airport. By the same token, I
would recommend that those complaining about Israel's international
isolation visit an English pub from time to time, preferably outside of
London. While every pub has a television or two, the patrons' opinions
about Israel will, for the most part, be very different from what we've
become accustomed to hearing on international media networks.
"Way to go, Jews!
Respect! You are succeeding in dealing with all the troubles that Europe
is bowing to," said Dale, who sat at the bar at a Manchester pub,
immediately after he realized that I am Israeli. His enthusiasm was so
great that he gathered the rest of the patrons around us and asked them
how to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. And let's just say that the
responses were taken from the extreme Right of our political spectrum.
After another round of beers, it became clear that there were people of
different backgrounds at the bar -- academics, like Dale, manual
laborers, Conservatives, Labour Party voters, those who were happy about
Britain's exit from the European Union and those who were against it.
But everyone supported Israel, without exception. And I asked about the
future of Jerusalem -- everyone wanted it to remain in Jewish hands.
Surprisingly, the same
consensus repeated itself at dozens of other pubs that I visited during
my two weeks in England and Scotland. Many of my conversation partners
even apologized for the British media's completely different attitude.
"Here, you hear what people really think," one man told me at a small
country pub in northern Scotland. "And there," he pointed at the
television screen," There, they will only tell you things that someone
determined to be political norms."
This distinction
between "here" and "there" is not only in Britain, but in all of Europe.
The difference between what people on the street think and what is
presented by the media elite as the "right opinion" has never been
greater. This is the Europe that nobody talks about, and it is growing
bigger and stronger each day. On days when there is an Islamist
terrorist attack, it grows twice as much. This new Europe has no
negative sentiment toward Israel. The opposite is true -- as the
preaching in the pages of The Guardian newspaper about the supposed
evils of the Israeli military continues, love for Israel grows in
Britain's pubs. The pub-goers are beginning to understand: Israel is
fighting the same enemy that sets off bombs in Brussels, slits throats
in London and rams into crowds in Nice.
A few years ago, Israel
was for many Europeans the "bad seed" in the Middle East. Arab
propaganda achieved a lot and managed to create a terrible image for
Israel in certain European countries. But images are fluid, especially
when they clash with reality. The reality of the culture war with
extremist Islam is causing many Europeans to look at Israel as a
preferred ally.
This trend has not yet
found expression in politics, because the political echelon in Europe
follows behind the opinion of its voting public. Officials in Brussels
were late to identify European voter disappointment in the European
Union project, and now they are again late in identifying the public
trend from resentment of Israel to admiration of it. Europe is on the
verge of a major turning point. The reasons for the rising tides of
change are not related to Israel, but Israel must be prepared to ride
the waves.
Ariel Bolstein is the founder of the Israel advocacy organization Faces of Israel.
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=16813
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