Pro-Arab sympathies in Eastern European countries remained at a low level in the year after the June 1967 Arab-Israel war, despite a vigorous campaign by Communist regimes to induce their peoples to support the Arabs, the American Jewish Committee reported today.
Citing information obtained by its European office in Paris, the AJ Committee also said that sympathy for Israel appeared to have dropped somewhat in the Communist countries during that year but that Israel still enjoyed a four to one edge over the Arabs in public sympathy. The Paris report indicated that the number of Israeli sympathizers also dropped in Western Europe that year but such supporters maintained an eight to one advantage over the Arabs in public backing. The report said that the data were based on opinions obtained from more than 5,000 East Europeans from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Rumania who visited West Europe. The information from them was collected by “responsible public opinion research institutes,” the report added.
The report said that Poles, particularly Polish youth, reacted strongly against the Wladyslaw Gomulka regime’s anti-Semitic propaganda campaign, adding that the number of Israel’s sympathizers “actually grew” during the two period in which visiting East Europeans were questioned. The report said that 67 percent of such East Europeans supporting Israel said they regarded the Arabs as the aggressors and 16 percent indicated compassion for past Jewish suffering or admiration for Israeli achievements. The report added that “only seven percent justified their pro-Israel stand by citing Arab Communism and only three percent said the Israelis were fighting Communism.”
But, the report asserted, “the basic anti-Russian sentiment behind this pro-Israel bias is apparent.” The underlying reason “is a clearly discernible identification with a small nation which successfully defied the Russians, upset their political machinations and thus far managed to get away with it.” Czech sentiment closely followed the general pro-Israel stand in Europe generally. The Hungarians’ support for Israel dropped to 36 percent in the final survey after initially indicating 65 percent support for Israel. Rumanian attitudes remained strongly pro-Israel.
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