Support for Israel slides in Netherlands 02/08/2006 00:00

2 August 2006

AMSTERDAM — Over a third (39 percent) of the public in the Netherlands is more negative about Israel since the start of the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Only one in three Dutch people still support Israel's actions against Hezbollah, according to an opinion poll carried out by TNS NIPO for RTL News. Even fewer Dutch people (18 percent) have an understanding for Hezbollah's role.

RTL said 59 percent of the respondents said the Netherlands should provide soldiers for a peace-keeping mission to aid reconstruction, but only when the fighting has stopped.

Fifty five percent said the Dutch government had not done enough to help bring the conflict in the Middle East to an end. A majority said it would be preferable for the government in The Hague to call for an immediate ceasefire.

A first draft statement circulated by the European Union's Finnish presidency at emergency talks in Brussels on Tuesday included such a demand. It was amended to an "immediate cessation of hostilities" because of opposition from the Netherlands, the UK and Germany.

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot said he wanted to see a halt to the bloodshed but a call for an immediate ceasefire was not realistic or credible.

The Dutch people are even less impressed with the US. Fifty eight percent of the respondents said US President George W. Bush had not done enough to quell the violence.

[Copyright Expatica News 2006]

Subject: Dutch news, Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah