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Palestinians Embrace Hamas
What will it take for the U.S. and Europe to realize that the Palestinians support Hamas? Two recent polls, taken by Palestinian organizations, verify that despite the ugliness of Hamas’ recent horrific actions (from one poll) and its mismanagement of Gaza, Palestinians still favor their rule. Here’s a summary of the most recent poll:
A public opinion poll published on November 14 showed that 75% of Palestinians support Hamas’s murder spree, including rape and beheadings, as opposed to only 13% who disapprove.
The poll, conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD), covered 668 respondents across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
According to the results, 59.3% of the Palestinians expressed ‘extreme support’ for the actions of Hamas on October 7, while 15.7% said they ‘somewhat’ favored the massacre. Fewer than 13% of the Palestinians opposed the massacre.
But if you think the poll only represented Gaza, think again:
The poll also showed that 68% of the Palestinians in the West Bank said they ‘extremely support’ the butchering of Israelis, while another 14.8% said they ‘somewhat’ support it. In total, 87.7% of the Palestinians in the West Bank have a positive sentiment toward Hamas. Only 10.2% of the Palestinians living in the West Bank have a negative sentiment toward Hamas.
To show how deluded the U.S. and Europe are about creating a two-state solution, consider this data:
One month before the Hamas massacre, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research published a poll that showed that 67% of the Palestinian public opposes the idea of a ‘two-state solution’ as opposed to 32% who support it. The poll showed that a majority of 53% of the Palestinians support armed struggle against Israel. Twenty percent said they support negotiations with Israel, while another 24% expressed support for a ‘popular non-violent resistance.’ The poll, in addition, showed that if new presidential elections were held at the time, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would receive 58% of the votes as opposed to 37% for Abbas.
A person can question the veracity of both polls shown here; Arab pollsters are not always reliable in the results they reach. Is AWRAD under the influence of Hamas? Did the pollsters intimidate the respondents to give answers favoring Hamas? These are all questions for which we have no answers.
But this is the data we have to consider. In effect, nothing has changed in attitudes toward Hamas and Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians still hate the Jews. They still desire to drive the Jews into the sea. They want the land all to themselves.
How does Israel, or anyone else, convince Biden and the Europeans that their preferred solution is naïve, deluded and will end in disaster?
In response to how the children are indoctrinated, from cdor below:
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Published in Terrorism
It’s not the provision of the weapons, it’s the type of weapons.
From what I understand, the US and Israel have always had a tacit (likely contractual) agreement that the US would supply (that is, sell to) Israel all the materiel, including replacement parts and ammunition, that the Israelis needed to resupply precision artillery shells and missiles (including Iron Dome) and precision bombs that Israel purchased from the US companies during any war that it engaged in.
But Glick says first that Blinken told the IDF that the US would not resupply precision armament unless Israel agreed to allow Hamas to resupply or Gaza under UN monitors for “humanitarian” purposes. And so, Hamas has been allowed to resupply Gaza for weeks. Since then the US Army has apparently incorporated itself into IDF decision-making and planning.
And more recently, it’s been reported that even if the US does choose to resupply Israel with precision armaments it will not resupply 2,000 ground penetrating bombs to destroy deep tunnels but milder 250 pound bombs which are ineffective, ostensibly to reduce civilian casualties. Though, 250 pound bombs (it seems to me) will greatly destroy above-ground structures to rubble and further endanger the civilian populations.
So this isn’t about Congress at all, or funding, but military goals and tactics, that effectively handcuffs the IDF in regard to what Israel may do to in its own consideration to most effectively and humanely prosecute this war.
Just to be clear…
Yes, that’s much clearer.
I’m not aware of any tacit agreement. Way outside my expertise. Did you see the post just before page 2 here where I pulled up the funding breakdown from Defense News?
Yes, I read it, but unfortunately it doesn’t say specifically what type and quality of armaments are to be supplied. That’s the question. Will they be big and smart or small and stupid?
I did the boring thing and read the Gatestone Institute article, and then clicked through to the actual poll results. Imagine my surprise (none) when it didn’t actually mention murder spree, rape or beheadings.
Not sure how reasonable that distinction is. Perhaps the avg.-Palestinian-on-the-Street doesn’t know about this, or doesn’t believe this…despite the social media postings?
Even so, the fact of the surprise attack is an intrinsic part of the poll question, and has received an after-the-fact blessing from the considerably majority of the population.
I assume you’re referring to “Table 15” (actually “Table 27” in the details) asking about support for the “military operation” on October 7? Which shows total 83% “extreme” or “somewhat” support in the West Bank, and almost 64% total within Gaza?
What’s your point, that those people didn’t really know what Hamas actually did?
I interpret your comment as implicitly affirming this:
If a Muslim Arab living under the rule of Hamas tells a pollster that he supports Hamas’ rule, it is reasonable to consider it reliable evidence that he does.
To explain what I meant, I must first confirm that interpretation.
Well, now I am struggling. On the one hand, if a Palestinian pollster interviews a Palestinian, the chances are/might be good that the results are reliable. The problem is that Palelstinian pollsters sometimes lie and we don’t know if Hamas has any influence with them. Now what? I think what you’re saying is that we should, instead, trust the history we know of the area, and others need to be educated in that history, rather than trusting pollsters. But what if those who are ignorant don’t want to be enlightened? Anyway, Mark say your piece…and then three lashes…
Nobody liked my opinion on Breitbart. I’m still gonna say it again. I don’t think the poll indicates Hamas has strong support from the so called “Palestinians”. I think the poll indicates Hamas still has strong psychological control over the Palestinians. I keep remembering seeing online that photograph of a crowd in Germany in the late 1930’s, the photo in which one man is daring to not give the Nazi salute. I hate to say this, but surrounded by that, I wouldn’t have had the St. Thomas Moore type courage to refrain from doing what he refrained from doing.
I think there’s a good possibility these people (the “Palestinians”) feel that spies are everywhere, the walls have ears, and not demonstrating verbal support for Hamas is almost as much seen as an act of rebellion against Hamas as being caught speaking against Hamas.
Problem is, though, that Hamas will continue to be able to control these people until Hamas is completely destroyed. That means there will be collateral damage. It’s horrible but, even if the Palestinians are much more controlled by Hamas than they are supportive of Hamas, to defeat Hamas, it’s necessary that the “Palestinians” become more afraid of Israel than they are of Hamas. For her own survival, Israel has to completely destroy Hamas. There’s only so much she can do to prevent collateral damage and still destroy Hamas.
Social media is not that reliable, imo – a lot of battling agendas and little accountability. My guess is that they don’t believe a lot of this – certainly the allegations of rape. They may also be more focused on what’s happening to them in Gaza.
Sure, though they probably perceive it as something other than a mad killing and rape spree. Also, public opinion in Israel fully backs Israel’s response in Gaza but that hasn’t translated into full support for Netanyahu.
You’ve confirmed that you believe that an Arab Muslim under Hamas rule who does not support Hamas is likely to answer honestly, if the pollster is a Palestinian. I interpreted your comment correctly.
I don’t believe that. The reason I consider people in that group to be likely to lie has nothing to do with who the pollster is.
Based on what I have read over the years and as recently as this week about life and death for Muslims under Hamas, there ample reason for me to think that he will likely be afraid to tell the truth to anyone except his/her spouse and friends he trusts with his very life, and the lives of his loved ones. In his shoes, you would lie, too, and so would I.
The situation for subjects in Hamas-controlled territory is fundamentally no different with respect to expressing opposition to the authority from that in France during the terror, in Nazi Germany, in the Cultural Revolution under Mao, in the USSR under Stalin, East Germany under the Stasi, or N. Korea under Communism.
Netanyahu had political problems before the war, and I doubt anyone expects those to go away just because he’s running the war.
A fair observation, Mark. I assume your conclusion is to ignore the polls? Do you see any other conclusions we could draw that might be helpful?
Whether or not it also results in the “Palestinians” also being freed, Hamas must be destroyed.
It is a simple equation, to wit: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. They may hate Hamas, but the hatred of Israel and Jews is a much deeper hatred. We see this constantly in the internecine conflicts between Sunni and Shia. They hate each other, but they hate the infidel even more. A Muslim is a Muslim, a non-Muslim is an infidel. A good Muslim will always side with his own kind before he sides with an infidel. That is the law.
Yes, I believe that ordinary Americans should ignore any polls as sources of reliable hard data for gauging the true degree of support for Hamas among its Muslim subjects (there are also Christians and churches in Gaza) that were taken after Hamas came to power and ordinary Palestinians had a chance to discover its true nature.
I am sure that experts in the history and current conditions under Hamas can draw conclusions that are helpful to them, that I could not.
Americans are being duped by Hamas propaganda just as Americans like Thomas Paine were duped by the Jacobins, and later Americans were duped by the propaganda of Hitler, Stalin, the Vietnamese and South African Communists, Castro, and so many other brutal despots.
Isn’t it true that in orthodox Islam, or at least a major version of it, Jews and Christians are not infidels but People of the Book? Subject to a special tax but not to the sword. Unlike a Muslim who turns away from the faith, who must be executed.
That’s what I remember always reading, anyway.
Bingo. I agree because how could the situation for people under Hamas be any different when it comes to expressing one’s thoughts about what’s going on under their rule ?
Even though another muslim might be quite willing to kill them for being the wrong type of muslim or something, whereas the non-muslim wouldn’t.
People of the book is meaningless. Jews especially are described in the most vile way in Islamic scriptures.
I’m not doubting “Palestinian” Islamic culture is barbaric. I’m also not doubting these people have been conditioned by brainwashing started in early childhood to have an insane hatred for Jews. I just don’t believe any ordinary “Palestinians” hate Jews so much that they welcome Hamas putting weapons and tunnels under their hospitals and day care centers, or that most of them want to stay in areas about to be attacked and are fine with Hamas shooting any of them trying to leave. When ordinary people are making themselves and their children vulnerable to being killed, they aren’t functioning that way willingly. They’re being controlled by rulers using terror to control them.
I guess. But there are also lots of people in the US who keep voting for Democrats when they’re not complaining about what those Democrats do.
No, I don’t buy this explanation for one minute. Hamas Celebrated their atrocities in public out in the open (in Gaza), and posted heinous videos for the rest of the world to see. It is impossible for any Gazan not to know what happened. It is their biggest celebration of a lifetime, their largest achievement in Gaza history. Arabs love to brag and boast about dominance. I don’t think citizens were learning about this from social media, their terrorist friends and family members came back and joyfully told them what happened, and most likely exaggerated it to be ten times worse than it was. And rape is a normal part of their culture of conquest. You’d be hard-pressed to find a Gazan who didn’t believe the terrorists did that to women. You must not know any Arabs.
I think the people who don’t quite believe this happened are not the Gazans, but far-left Westerners who live lives of luxury, shielded from heinous violence and barbaric injustice. They cannot believe that human beings can be so savagely brutal as to obliterate little children by burning them alive or cutting off their heads. It is too painful for their naive minds to accept. Much easier to just blame the Jews.
I’m not so sure I agree about Gazans being afraid to tell their real answers to pollsters. Palestinians (in the modern definition) in and around the land of Israel have been attacking and killing Jews for just a little over 100 years now, and there has never really been a significant pause or change in attitude during the entire time. It is pretty much ingrained in their culture. There has been much progress with certain nations, such as Jordan and Egypt, but really none with the Palestinians.
I know that was true in the Ottoman Turkish Empire (who were not Arabs) hundreds of years ago, but I’m not so sure that same idea is practiced by most modern Arabs. It certainly is not practiced by Iran (also not Arab) who deem Israeli Jews and American Christians worthy of extermination.
The problem is humanity. It is always humanity. Lucifer doesn’t do any temptation.
It may also be that the idea of rape and torture of your enemies is less repugnant to some peoples than others. I honestly do not know.