Israel low in global popularity ranking

A poll released Tuesday by the BBC confirms Israel remains one of the world’s least popular countries, with more than half of those surveyed identifying its influence as “mainly negative.” Only North Korea, Pakistan and Iran fared worse.

Fifty-two percent of respondents view Israel in a negative light; 21% rated it in positive terms, placing it far behind China’s 42% and Russia’s 30%.

The global survey ranked Germany as the country with the best public image — 59% described Europe’s economic powerhouse as playing a “mainly positive” role in international affairs, ahead of runners-up Canada and the UK.

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The same percentage that found Germany mostly positive rated Iran’s perception as mostly negatively, placing the Ayatollahs last among the 16 countries (and the EU) that were rated by respondents.

The BBC’s write-up of the survey didn’t offer a precise geographical breakdown of which countries participated in the poll, simply describing respondents as “randomly selected people” in 25 nations.

Israelis can hope that certain countries excluded from the study might have performed worse. Participants weren’t asked to express their impressions of Syria, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela or Zimbabwe.