Peres says EU poll appears ‘anti-Semitic’
Israeli opposition leader Shimon Peres yesterday rejected the significance of a poll showing that 59 percent of European Union citizens believe Israel is the greatest threat to world peace, following a meeting with Foreign Minister George Papandreou in Athens. «Undoubtedly, there are elements of anti-Semitism in this poll because to say that Israel is a greater danger than Iran, North Korea, Libya is a little bit not serious,» Peres said before urging Europeans to «analyze the poll very carefully… because we cannot build a new Europe on old feelings.» Papandreou conceded that the Eurobarometer poll contained «an element that one could say could be anti-Semitic» but said the results could be a criticism of Israeli policies. Peres is to end his three-day visit to Greece by laying a wreath at Thessaloniki’s Holocaust Memorial tomorrow.
