The Palestinians don’t want Israel to destroy Hamas
“Moderate” Palestinian Authority again signals that the ISIS-like Hamas will be its partner in governing a Palestinian state.
Western leaders, and US President Joe Biden in particular, continue to insist that Hamas does not represent the Palestinians, painting the jihadists as a fringe movement that enjoys no real support.
And the Palestinians themselves continue to belie that claim.
Israel’s quest to destroy Hamas is “unacceptable,” Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told world leaders at the Doha Forum in Qatar on Sunday. He went on to call Hamas, which much of the world now equates with ISIS, an “essential part of the Palestinian political mosaic.”
The supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority “wants a situation in which Palestinians are united,” and that includes Hamas, explained the Palestinian prime minister.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Shtayyeh refused to condemn the barbaric Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, suggesting that it was a natural response to “things done by [Israeli] citizens to Palestinians.”
Partnering with the devil
In that same Bloomberg interview, Shtayyeh said that the future Palestinian governance of Gaza that the Biden administration foresees should include Hamas.
“What is needed really is a situation in which Palestinian unity should be allowed to function on very clear bonds and agenda,” he stressed.
A recent Palestinian opinion poll found that 89 percent of Palestinians want a government that includes or is led by Hamas.
Killing Jews is the key to popularity
Contrary to what Westerners might want to believe, Hamas’s mass murder of Jewish men, women and children boosted its popularity among average Palestinians.
A survey published on November 14, more than a month after the Hamas massacres, found that 75 percent of Palestinians across the so-called “West Bank” and Gaza support Hamas’s murder spree, including rape and beheadings, as opposed to just 13% who disapprove.
In a recent encounter at our editorial offices in Jerusalem, Israel Today Editor-in-Chief Aviel Schneider was told by one of our long-time Arab suppliers, “We are all Hamas!”
Long-standing support
High levels of support for Hamas among average Palestinians is not a new phenomenon.
Student union elections earlier this year at the two largest Palestinian universities in the “West Bank” were won by Hamas. And a poll conducted in July found that “57% of Gazans express at least a somewhat positive opinion of Hamas—along with similar percentages of Palestinians in the West Bank (52%) and East Jerusalem (64%).”
The numbers have been like that for years.
The people’s choice
The last time the Palestinian Authority held an election in accordance with the so-called “Oslo Accords,” Hamas won, and not by a little bit.
In the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas won 76 of 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council. Of the 24 seats assigned to the Gaza Strip, Hamas won 15 (62%).
The reason for the Palestinian Authority not holding another general election since 2006 is that all public opinion polls show that Hamas would win again.
Last year, a survey conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) found that in an election between Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, 61% of Gazans would back Haniyeh, while only 35% would vote for Abbas. In a parliamentary election, 45% said they would vote for Hamas, compared to 32% who would vote for Abbas’s Fatah, while the rest would vote for other parties.
In a mid-2023 PCPSR poll, support for Haniyeh and Hamas rose to 65%, compared to 30% for Abbas.
Pull your head out of the sand
It is typical for Western power brokers, chief among them the United States, to project their own worldview on others and ignore completely what third parties like the Palestinians are admitting openly. Washington has an agenda and it isn’t about to let the inconvenient reality of Palestinian intransigence get in the way. Never mind that ignoring such realities has on numerous occasions scuttled the American agenda. Afghanistan, anyone?
The “see no evil, hear no evil” approach to the Palestinians has only served to exacerbate the conflict and push peace further away. It’s time to think outside that worn and dilapidated box.
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