So what else is new?

According to the BBC, Israel tops the list of most negatively perceived countries, followed closely by Iran and the United States in a poll conducted in Europe and some Middle Eastern countries.
Oh, please. Let me feign surprise. Let me open my mouth in wide disbelief.
It amazes me, but it does not surprise me, that Israel is perceived more negatively than Iran, a theocratic repressive dictatorship run by insane, medieval zealots.
One of the things I have been able to glean from David Mamet's enigmatic rant about assimilated Jews and with which I concur, is that the hatred of Israel is nothing but socially permissible antisemitism. Note that I say the hatred, the exaggerated hostility, the endless nitpicking against the only fucking civilized country in the entire region.
As for Europeans hating Israel and the US, please tell me something I don't know. As for Muslim countries feeling the same way, it's not surprising since their citizens are routinely poisoned with antisemitism, from the media to schoolchildren's textbooks.
The self-righteous Europeans who treat their Arab immigrants like scum and then have the gall to give grief to Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians and its right to defend itself from violence not only are the zenith of hypocrisy; they are really barking up the very wrong tree.
But we're used to that. This is nothing new.