Thursday, May 19, 2011

Pew's 'new' poll: Old attitudes & the 'Arab Spring'....

So Pew conducted this poll in the middle of the 'Arab Spring', hence one would assume that the attitudes are fresh off the 'tahrir press'. Not really! 
 Regarding Egypt, I think that the 30% of Egyptians who view HzB in a good light is still significant, not as a negative, considering the tarnish & demonization campaign that the Lebanese party was subjected to after the 2006' aggression. Pew omits that Hassan Nasrallah REMAINS the most admired ARAB leader in Egypt today. Furthermore, Shibley Telhami found that although Hassan Nasralla's stature among Muslims & Arabs had decreased since 2006', he remained the MOST popular ARAB/Muslim leader in the Arab world. Recep Erdogan's stature increased from almost nothing in 2006' to be the MOST popular MUSLIM leader in the Arab world. This stellar increase was due to the very reason that propelled Nasrallah; ENMITY towards ISRAEL! So the Pew poll has to be read in the subtext, and it does not reflect a loss of stature of Nasrallah/HzB as much as it does a gain in stature of Erdogan.
'It all started in Davos!'
"... The survey, conducted between April 12 and May 7 by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project, finds that Hamas receives mixed ratings across the Muslim publics surveyed. Jordanian Muslims express the most support -- 60 percent have a favorable view of Hamas -- while Muslims in Turkey offer the least positive ratings (9 percent favorable and 67 percent unfavorable). In Egypt and Turkey, attitudes toward Hezbollah are generally negative. Just 30 percent of Muslims in Egypt, and even fewer (5 percent) in Turkey, offer favorable views of the Lebanon-based organization..."

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