A YouGov survey for The Telegraph invited respondents to rate almost two dozen countries, including Britain, on the basis of 12 separate criteria. It is interesting to see how little regard Britons are found to have for Israel.
Respondents were urged to name the three countries they thought best in the world according to each of the dozen criteria and also the three they thought worst. YouGov's findings offer a fascinating insight into how modern Britons see the wider world.
The violence and Israel's continuing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip seem to have done immense damage to its standing. Israel comes top of the list of countries where people would least like to live and would least like to take a holiday.
It is also the country thought least deserving of international respect. Despite being the only so-called "fully democratic state" in the Middle East, it is also thought by Britons to be among the world's "least democratic countries".
Of the 12 criteria set out in YouGov's check-list, Israel comes out bottom in four cases and among the bottom five in a total of eight. Only Russia has a worse overall score.
YouGov elicited the views of 2,058 adults across Great Britain on line between December 17 and 20. The data have been weighted to conform to the demographic profile of British adults as a whole.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
