Who can/should Israel trust?
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Israel Can Trust Hamas
by A.J. Caschetta
Special to IPT News
When President Joe Biden says, "let there be no doubt: The United States has Israel's back," Israel should be skeptical. But when Hamas leaders promise to wage unending war until they annihilate all the Jews or die trying, Israel can trust that they mean it. Ironically, Jerusalem can trust its enemies more than its allies to keep their promises.
After the massacre on October 7, Biden at first reacted appropriately in remarks on October 10, calling it "an act of sheer evil" and Hamas "a group whose stated purpose for being is to kill Jews." He said, "We stand with Israel," promised "military assistance," and acknowledged that "if the United States experienced what Israel is experiencing, our response would be swift, decisive, and overwhelming." Time (prematurely) called Biden "America's most pro-Israel president ever."
It didn't take long for the State Department to revolt over Biden's defense of Israel's defending itself. Then, over 400 government employees (most of them Democrats) wrote a letter condemning Israel. It was only a matter of time before Biden would accede to the AOC-wing of his party and the entrenched anti-Israel bureaucracy at the State Department.
On October 25, Biden rightly expressed skepticism over the uncritically-repeated death count reported by the Hamas health ministry, declaring "I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many have been killed." But the very next day, he apologized to a group of Muslim leaders at the White House for doing so, promising he would "do better" and adding, "I'm disappointed in myself."
Soon, Biden's Secretary of Defense, Loyd Austin (who demonstrated his expertise in the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan), was dispatched to Israel to advise the IDF how to wind down combat operations in Gaza. So much for standing with Israel.
Soon, Biden's Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, began publicly warning Israel to protect civilians and blindly advocating a "two-state solution," as though Hamas hadn't just shown the world what a Palestinian state looks like. So much for having Israel's back.
Hamas, on the other hand, has never wavered from its 1988 Charter (or "Covenant" as it is sometimes called) which proclaims that "there is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad" and declares that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it."
Eighteen years later, on January 25, 2006, one of the co-founders of Hamas named Mahmoud al-Zahar promised, after voting in the last election ever in Gaza, that Hamas "is not going to change a single word in its covenant."
After Hamas won that election, Khaled Mashaal, another Hamas leader, promised that "Hamas has a vision. Hamas has a plan. Hamas can manage the political battle, just like it managed the military battle, but in a different language, with different tools, and recognizing Israel is not one of them. Nor is giving up the rights, giving up the right to resistance, and nor is giving up the weapons of the resistance."
In 2007, Hamas issued a statement assuring the world that, "We will not betray promises we made to God to continue the path of Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine."
On June 15, 2010, Mahmoud al-Zahar reiterated his promise that "[t]his is our plan for this stage – to liberate the West Bank and Gaza, without recognizing Israel's right to a single inch of land... We will not recognize the Israeli enemy."
Hamas has kept this promise.
Since the October 7 massacre, Hamas has continued making promises.
On October 24, Gazi Hamad, a Hamas terrorist posing as a politician, told LBC TV in Lebanon that, "We will repeat October 7 attacks until Israel is annihilated." He added that the October 7 attack "is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve, and the capabilities to fight."
A Hamas "media consultant" named Taher El-Nounou told the New York Times for an article published on November 8 that, "the state of war with Israel will become permanent."
On December 14, one of the Hamas billionaires, Mousa Abu Marzook, posted on X that "Hamas does not recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation ... We confirm that the resistance will continue to liberation and return."
Israel can have faith that Hamas intends to keep these promises too.
When it comes to its ally, the U.S., there is perhaps only one thing that Israel can have faith in – that the Biden administration will continue to press Jerusalem into a "two-state solution," even if it means accepting a Gaza in which Hamas retains power. As a State Department spokesman put it, "Ultimately, the future of Palestinian leadership is a question for the Palestinian people." The problem is that the Palestinian people overwhelmingly (89%) support Hamas.
In Elie Wiesel's autobiography of his years spent in Nazi death camps, Night (1958), he recounts how an old man dying of dysentery in Auschwitz once told him, "I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people."
Israel can trust that Hamas, like Hitler, intends to keep its promises, all its promises, to the Jewish people.
IPT Senior Fellow A.J. Caschetta is a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a fellow at Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum where he is also a Ginsberg-Milstein fellow.
Copyright © 2023. Investigative Project on Terrorism. All rights reserved.
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When those in intelligence fail to accept and investigate they become dangerous.
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In detail: The document which predicted Hamas' October 7 attack
Parts of top-secret document compiled already in October 2022 precisely described the attack which took place a year later.
Parts of a top-secret document compiled in the IDF’s Gaza Division already in October of 2022 described, step-by-step and precisely, the surprise Hamas attack that took place a year later on October 7, 2023, the “Uvda” program which airs on Channel 12 reported on Thursday.
The document shows evidence of the depth of Israel's understanding of the Hamas plan and its failure in the field of assessing Hamas’ intentions.
For example, the document describes specific divisions of Hamas that are going to invade bases and kibbutzim located near the border with Gaza, with the aim of "carrying out a campaign of killing and destruction, with designated fighters to take prisoners", with the initial step being to neutralize the technological systems in the Gaza Division.
After the initial phase, the document predicted that there would be a breach of the fence using an engineering force, followed by an infiltration by terrorists mounted on jeeps and motorcycles. In the following stages, there will be infiltration attempts from the air using paragliders as well as from the sea.
The document listed several possible scenarios, with one of them dealing with a mass infiltration, just like what happened in the surprise attack on October 7.
The secret document also states that the timing of the attack would be known to very few people in the Hamas leadership, but in any case, it would happen when there are only four operational employment battalions with no other forces in the field.
Finally, the document dealt with the question of the likeliness of the threat - and clarifies that it is not clear whether it is an operative plan, a compass for building power or a theoretical plan.
The Channel 12 report stated that the document was sent to the entire top echelon of the Military Intelligence Directorate, and the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate was exposed to its contents as well.
And:
Lesson of the Strike That Killed Soleimani - WSJ
After exchanging fire with the U.S. four years ago, Iran continued to pursue its long-term trifecta of strategic objectives: preserving the theocratic regime in Tehran, destroying Israel, and ejecting the U.S. from the Middle East. The mullahs’ actions, however, were muted and hidden behind proxies, from the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas in Gaza and Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria. The Iranians remembered the result of a straightforward confrontation with the U.S.
Regrettably, the U.S. hasn’t remembered this lesson and the importance of matching demonstrable will with our capabilities. Even before Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, Iranian forces were launching missile and drone strikes on our bases across the region, acting through proxies that gave them a measure of deniability. Our response has consistently been tentative, overly signaled and unfocused.
Iranian leaders work with Lenin’s dictum that “you probe with bayonets: if you find mush, you push. If you find steel, you withdraw.” Tehran and its proxies are pressing their attacks because they haven’t confronted steel. The ability to stop such probing generally depends on a swift and violent counterattack. Delaying and equivocating usually means the response needed to re-establish deterrence has to be much larger than it would have been if it had been applied in a timely manner. As a military officer, I have observed such hesitancy and lack of strategic clarity across several presidential administrations. In 2019, an early and sharp response to Iranian provocation might have ended the escalatory spiral well before the U.S. had to strike Soleimani and accept the possibility of theater war.
There is another issue at stake. If avoiding escalation is the highest U.S. priority, then it is only logical to withdraw our forces from the region. That would ensure attacks on our bases don’t continue but ultimately endanger the future of the Mideast. Language that describes avoiding escalation as our highest priority is, therefore, inaccurate and dangerous. It sends an unhelpful signal to our adversaries as well as our friends and allies.
A case in point is Houthi activity in and around the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. In the National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy of the U.S. we emphasize the importance of free passage through such global choke points. Protecting this principle, and our strategic priority, is more important than avoiding escalation. Taking strong action against the Houthis isn’t likely to lead to theaterwide escalation. Iran is waging a hidden-hand war from Yemen because it is cheap and because there are few consequences for Tehran. A forceful response against the Houthis, designed to make them feel the pain of continuing their irresponsible behavior, wouldn’t ineluctably lead to a large-scale Iranian response. Pursuing this approach is especially consequential: The Chinese are watching to see how we respond to a threat involving a narrow strait.
Unfortunately, it is the U.S. that is being deterred, not Iran and its proxies. To reset deterrence, we must apply violence that Tehran understands. Paradoxically, if done earlier, this violence could have been of a far smaller and more measured scale. Indecision has placed us in this position. There is a way forward but it requires the U.S. to set aside the fear of escalation and act according to the priorities of our strategic documents and concepts. Iranians understand steel. They also understand mush. It is time to choose.
Gen. McKenzie, a retired U.S. Marine general, served as commander of U.S. Central Command, 2019-22. He is executive director of the Global and National Security Institute at the University of South Florida and author of “The Melting Point: High Command and War in the 21st Century,” forthcoming in June.
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My Father Is an Imam in Gaza. Hamas Kidnapped Him for Refusing to Be Their Puppet.
Last weekend, twenty masked men dragged my father away. His crime? He refused to brainwash his people with their politics.
By Ala Mohammed Mushtaha
RAFAH—On Saturday, December 30, our front door was busted down, and twenty masked men barged in and took my father, a widely respected and deeply learned imam here in Gaza.
One dragged him by his head, and another grabbed him by his beard. My younger brother tried to intervene and reason with the kidnappers, but they beat him. I have a medical condition that makes it hard for me to breathe, so all I could do was watch as the horror unfolded.
I know that if Hamas kills my father, they’ll say that the Israeli army did it. But my father was very keen that even if he died, we should make known the despicable demands they made of him. It was his last request to us, literally as he was being carried out of the door, that should he die, we should publicize the real reason for his death, and it is this:
He wouldn’t preach what Hamas told him to. He refused to tell Gazans that violent resistance, and obedience to Hamas, is the best way out of our current hell.
This story starts before October 7, and even before 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza.
Our family has lived in Gaza for generations. Before 2007, my father worked for the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. After Hamas took over, they forced him out of his position. This was a hard time for my family; my father was the sole breadwinner. Finally, after three long years, he came back to work first as a mosque servant, then a mosque guard, then an employee of the ministry and finally, he was appointed as a mosque imam. (My father is known throughout the Gaza Strip. He has a doctorate in sharia from Cairo’s storied Al-Azhar University, and is well-respected by his peers.)
For Hamas, being Muslim means supporting Hamas, and people who do not support Hamas aren’t Muslims. If you don’t abide by what Hamas tells you, you’ll lose your job or worse. To keep my father in line, ensuring that he would deliver only Hamas-approved Friday sermons and allow Hamas to use his mosque as a clandestine weapons depot, they arrested my brother and me at least ten times between 2016 and 2019. Sometimes they would speak politely, sometimes they would ask us to comply “for the sake of your sisters,” but always the threat of violence loomed in the background. And several times we were beaten and humiliated in front of our father. They beat him, too, once nearly blinding him.
He was forced to do things for Hamas; move money around, store things, keep their secrets.
As an imam, my father keeps the keys to the mosque and is responsible for safeguarding large sums of money that Muslims give as zakat, the mandatory almsgiving of our faith. Hamas members would take advantage of his duties and use the mosque to stash money, weapons, and equipment.
Sometimes they’d bring a large, wrapped-up prayer rug, which they said had been donated—except my father wasn’t allowed to open the rugs; only special volunteers were allowed to open them or transport the rugs in and out. My father had to open and close the doors and allow the sacred space to be used as a warehouse for Hamas. What choice did he have? It’s a bitter truth that Hamas thinks of mosques as the property of their regime and that they store weapons there.
Once there were big boxes that were marked as food aid. There wasn’t food inside, but something made of iron.
The most egregious thing Hamas imposed on my father was the content of his Friday sermons. They instructed him to brainwash people with their politics, to stick with Hamas and with the “resistance,” and that it’s the only choice. That those who died fighting would be rewarded with 72 black-eyed virgins. Patience, jihad, all of that stuff. Hamas exploits our religion, pretending to be modern-day prophets, likening themselves to the companions of the prophet Muhammad.
Nobody told my father there was a plan to attack Israel on October 7. There’s just this constant overarching message within the mosques, Islamic classes, sermons, and lectures, that the “resistance”—meaning Hamas and only Hamas—is the only way to liberate Al-Aqsa and the only way to alleviate our suffering.
They do all this brainwashing to make you think the cause of our suffering is Israel. But I see very clearly who causes our suffering.
Whereas most aid in Gaza is only accessible to Hamas’s loyalists or those who toe the movement’s line, my father would collect and distribute zakat alms to those who actually needed it. Some congregants would donate food, furniture, and household goods; and many among Gaza’s neediest would come to my father, who would see that they were distributed fairly. My father also strove to give pious Muslims unbiased spiritual guidance, not the propaganda Hamas clerics deliver.
We fled our homes in Gaza City on October 20, moving from place to place until settling at my sister’s home in Rafah several weeks ago. Her home was bombed as well, and now roughly forty people, including women and seniors, are sharing space in a building that is partly reduced to rubble.
Since the war, Hamas has put enormous pressure on imams to persuade the population that their only choice is “the resistance.” Schools and universities aren’t functioning; the one thing that draws people in is prayer.
But now we have reached a time when nearly everyone in Gaza is saying Hamas caused the death of 20,000 people in Gaza and the injury of 50,000 more. So when the group demanded that my father go to a school where thousands of displaced persons are sheltering and urge them to stand with the “resistance”—to trust Hamas—he flat-out refused. My father knows the difference between right and wrong. He knew that refusing to act as a megaphone for Hamas could lead to his death, and yet he refused. He has a clear conscience. So does everyone who knows what really happened to him, and why.
This time, it’s not like the prior wars. This time, people are telling the truth.
Before October 7, people were afraid—and of course some people are still afraid—but ironically, when there is fighting, Hamas goes underground, and people can be more vocal about how Hamas has ruined our lives. People are starting to publicly violate the laws, rules, dictates, and orders of Hamas. They are openly cursing Hamas and its leaders in the streets and markets, and ignoring the directives of the few Hamas officials and police still above ground. They have caused so much damage, it’s undeniable. They’ve imposed themselves on our society, on my father, for too long. We’re all paying the price. People want freedom. We hope deeply that this war will end, and that Hamas will end with it.
I don’t know where my father is. I don’t know if I will ever see him alive again. My hope in telling this story to the public, and putting my name to it, is to somehow offer my father a measure of protection. Hamas may wish to release him and show the world that they would never harm an admired mosque preacher. God alone knows the future, but what I know is that, under no circumstances, would my father want to become a propaganda tool.
Mr. Mushtaha shared his story with The Free Press as part of the ongoing series Voices from Gaza, our partnership with the Center for Peace Communications.
And:
The basic problem with many western thinkers is they cannot understand the Marxist and/or "Muslim Mind." They cannot bring themselves to believe they are committed to insane beliefs.
The basic problem with many western thinkers is they cannot understand the Marxist and/or "Muslim Mind." They cannot bring themselves to believe they are committed to insane beliefs.
As I often state, "Some ideas are so stupid only liberals, radicals, Islamist terrorists and brainless youth can believe them."
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There’s no middle ground in the fight against DEI antisemitism
Allegations that the battle against campus antisemitism at Harvard was “hijacked” by right-wingers or racists are false. Advocates of woke ideology are the real racists.
By JONATHAN S. TOBIN JNS
Claudine Gay resigned as president of Harvard University but as she conceded defeat in her battle to hold onto her post, she further poisoned public discourse about the controversy that undid her. In a New York Times op-ed, Gay refused to take full responsibility for her failure to combat antisemitism at Harvard and ensure that Jewish students feel safe on campus. Add to that her hypocrisy about free speech and flat-out lying concerning plagiarism charges, which did more than anything to end her short tenure in the school’s top job. Worse, she also tried to smear her opponents, including those who brought the scholarly fraud that pervaded her meager writings to light, as racists.
But she was right about one thing. This story “is bigger” than her.
Critical to understanding this controversy or even the justified concerns about the post-Oct. 7 surge in antisemitism is the way leftist ideologies like intersectionality, critical race theory (CRT) and the woke catechism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have played in all of this. The obsession with race above and beyond every other possible consideration pushed morally corrupt figures like Gay to a position of pre-eminence in academia. But it also acts as a standing defense or rationale for her misdeeds, as well as her blind spot about antisemitism.
And that is why, before moving on, it’s worth debunking her self-serving swan song, in addition to the growing effort on the left to dismiss the controversy as nothing more than an example of a conservative “culture war” talking point or to second her bogus claim that she is a victim of racism. Equally important is the need to debunk the notion that there can be some middle ground about the role that woke ideology plays in stoking the post-Oct. 7 surge in Jew-hatred.
Lying about her record
Gay’s broadside in the Times is not so much clueless as it is a compendium of brazen falsehoods and specious attacks on those who discovered her numerous instances of plagiarism.
Contrary to her assertion, she did not “promptly request corrections” in journals where she had failed to attribute work lifted from other scholars. In fact, she flatly refused to acknowledge what she had done and Harvard threatened the New York Post with legal action if they published reports about her plagiarism. She only corrected some of her thefts under duress. And she has not admitted her guilt even when it came to lifting entire paragraphs from another person’s work.
While she acknowledged that it was a “mistake” for her not to condemn Hamas terrorists in Gaza after Oct. 7, she didn’t own up to the fact that she treated anti-Israel and anti-Jewish demonstrations on her campus in the same way she had silenced those who disagreed with her beliefs. Nor was her disastrous congressional testimony, in which she said it would depend on the “context” if calls for the genocide of Jews would be judged as violating Harvard’s rules, a “trap.” While she later backtracked, she was quite defiant in the moment, clearly demonstrating that she was more worried about being seen as taking sides against antisemites and Israel-haters than labeled as someone willing to defend Jewish students being attacked in the same way she would other minorities.
Then came her attempt to claim the status of a martyr to racism. Her critics, who pointed out that there was something fishy about Harvard choosing someone with such an astonishingly thin record of scholarly achievement to be its president, were not engaging in racism. They were just stating the obvious about Harvard’s hiring process. There is no other rational explanation for Gay’s appointment other than the fact of her race, gender and leftist politics. Diversity and inclusion mean favoring the unqualified, provided they punch the right identity and ideological tickets.
The efforts of racial hucksters like Ibram X. Kendi and the Rev. Al Sharpton to bolster her image as a racial martyr is a flashing neon sign warning fair-minded persons what’s at stake here.
Just as bad are the arguments of those who seconded her belief that her downfall was attributed to a political plot.
The most egregious example of this was an AP article whose conceit was that the plagiarism charges were merely a “weapon” to discredit her that was utilized by ill-intentioned conservatives. In this account, the idea that she actually committed plagiarism was secondary to the fact that she was a black woman and that her opponents were opposed to woke ideology. The frame of reference was that if plagiarism could be used to undermine faith in institutions that have been taken over by progressives, then perhaps the longstanding belief that it is a serious offense should be rethought.
What going woke meant for Jews
This goes hand in hand with arguments that seek to distract us from what the progressive takeover of academia has meant for Jews.
Many liberals and moderates are rightly expressing concern about the way Jew-hatred has not just been tolerated but enabled and encouraged by college administrations, cultural and educational institutions, and the mainstream media since the Hamas attack on Israel. But our bifurcated political culture in which Americans are more divided than ever has influenced the debate about not just Gay, but the reasons why brazen antisemitism has become so prevalent on college campuses.
It was conservative political activists like author Christopher Rufo and others like him who have been leading the charge against the leftist ideas that people like Gay championed. And it was Rep. Elisa Stefanik (R-N.Y.), a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump and a possible running mate for him in the 2024 election, who exposed Gay to the world as a hypocrite when it comes to free speech who considered attacks on Jews unimportant. That has discredited their efforts in the eyes of those who identify as liberals or Democrats, or at the very least, caused them to try to separate the plague of woke leftist antisemitism from the factors that are fueling it.
Intersectionality, CRT and the DEI mantra have over the last several years been transformed from controversial left-wing ideas into an unchallengeable orthodoxy about race. Most liberals and Democrats acquiesced to the way traditional beliefs about equal opportunity have been discarded in favor of equity—a concept that is the opposite of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream about a nation where individuals would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin—because they feared being called a racist. That became especially true after the moral panic about race set off by the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, in which a heretofore deeply divisive and marginal force like the Black Lives Matter movement went mainstream in the summer of 2020. It even led liberal Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee to endorse BLM and DEI for fear of being out of sync with their allies on the left.
This was and remains a fatal mistake not just for Jews but for other Americans who remain blind to the consequences of empowering radical ideologues and their toxic ideas. The premise that the world is divided into two immutable groups—white oppressors and people of color, who are always the victims—is a recipe for endless racial conflict and threatens to undermine the progress Americans have made towards a more just society since the triumph of the civil-rights movement of the 1960s. While the DEI mantra has the sound of a philosophy of equality, it is nothing of the kind.
But it is particularly foolish for Jews since in this Manichean worldview, the woke falsely label them and the Jewish state as “white” oppressors. In doing so, they have granted a permission slip for antisemitism. While some of us have been pointing this out for years, most Americans didn’t realize it until a few months ago. It was only after Oct. 7—when progressives indoctrinated in the DEI faith demonstrated a knee-jerk willingness to condemn Jews who had suffered mass murder, rape, torture and kidnapping as oppressors and treat the Palestinian terrorists as victims—that evidence that the Jews were the canaries in the coal mine when it came to the perils of DEI became too obvious to ignore.
A choice is necessary
Yet too many moderates and liberals are still trying to argue that outrage about the mobs chanting for the destruction of Israel can be separated from the genocide of Jews. It is this warped view that has sent such “progressives” into the streets and onto campuses to vent their rage.
You don’t have to like Stefanik or Rufo, or plan to vote for the Republicans, to understand that so long as woke commissars like Claudine Gay—and her counterparts elsewhere—are dominating America’s college campuses, the virus of antisemitism will continue to grow. Democrats must understand that unless DEI rules are thrown out of academia, the corporate world, the media and the government (where an executive order by President Joe Biden put them in place throughout the federal apparatus), their party will be completely taken over by leftists who hate Israel and are indifferent at best to the spread of antisemitism.
The aftermath of Oct. 7 and the fall of Claudine Gay ought to be a turning point in this debate. But it won’t be if those who acknowledge that antisemitism is on the rise don’t draw the appropriate conclusions about why this has happened.
Gay’s fate or that of any other college administrator is secondary to whether their toxic ideas will be allowed to continue to be the official new secular religion of American civic life. On this question, there is no middle ground. There’s no way to make DEI less antisemitic since it is designed to divide and target some for opprobrium in this manner. Treating the impact of woke ideas as nothing more than a conservative culture war controversy won’t work anymore.
Americans have to choose and traditional political loyalties are no longer relevant. They can either join those seeking to roll back the woke tide and restore basic American values of equality and fairness, or they can stand by and watch as a neo-Marxist faith destroys American liberty piece by piece with the Jews just being the first victims.
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A CNN Host Tried to Bait a Guest Into Playing the Race Card on Claudine Gay. It Turned Out Poorly.
By Matt Vespa
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What do Palestinians think of Hamas?
Beyond the poll numbers, Palestinians’ personal accounts and human rights issues in Gaza offer a deeper understanding of the situation.
By Unpacked Staff
The majority of Palestinians do not support Hamas, but support for the terror group has significantly increased since the Oct. 7 attacks, a recent survey by the Palestinian Center for Policy Survey and Research found.
The poll, released earlier this month, found that the vast majority of Palestinians (72%) believe Hamas was justified in their Oct. 7 attack that killed over 1,200 people and took 250 people hostage.
Support for the attack was higher in the West Bank than in Gaza with 82% of West Bank residents backing the massacre compared to 57% of Gazans. Notably, the majority of respondents admitted they had not seen footage of the atrocious attacks.
Support for Hamas has also increased: In the West Bank, 44% of Palestinians said they supported the terror group, up from 32% in September. In Gaza, 42% said they supported Hamas compared to 38% three months prior.
The poll also found an overwhelming rejection of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, with 88% of Palestinians believing that he should resign.
Additionally, 60% of the respondents said the PA should be disbanded entirely. Middle East researcher and former MK Ksenia Svetlova explained that Palestinians view PA leader Abbas “as a collaborator with the IDF, as a traitor who submitted to Israel…He is deeply unpopular among his own people.”
Hamas vs. the Palestinian Authority
Hamas, an acronym in Arabic for “Islamic Resistance Movement,” is recognized as a terror group by several countries, including the United States.
Emerging as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, it is committed to the destruction of Israel to create an independent Palestinian state and does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.
In contrast, the PA, which evolved from the Palestinian Liberation Organization, was established after the Oslo Accords in the 1990s.
As a relatively more moderate and secular entity, the PA acknowledges Israel’s right to exist and has participated in peace negotiations with Israel.
However, the PA has yet to officially condemn the Oct. 7 attacks. Notably, the PA also has a controversial “pay to slay” program in which they make monthly payments to the families of incarcerated or deceased Palestinian terrorists. This program has been a significant point of contention in Israeli-Palestinian relations.
U.S. officials, including President Joe Biden, have indicated a preference for the PA to assume governance of Gaza after the war, aiming to unify Gaza and the West Bank under a single administrative entity.
The PA governed Gaza until 2007 when Hamas violently took control of the Strip after winning the 2006 election.
Beyond the poll numbers: Voices of dissent against Hamas
Beyond the poll numbers, Palestinians’ personal accounts and human rights issues in Gaza offer a deeper understanding of the situation.
From voices of dissent against Hamas to the struggles faced by LGBTQ+ individuals and women in Gaza, these narratives paint a picture of life under Hamas’s rule.
This dissent was recently documented in a video series, “Whispered in Gaza.” Here are some of the highlights from what Palestinians said.
“The real occupation is Hamas”
In the series, many Palestinians voiced profound dissatisfaction with the current leadership and living conditions in Gaza. All names of the interviewees were changed to protect their privacy.
One of them, Ashraf, a 28-year-old Gazan, expressed deep resentment toward Hamas, saying that they killed his brother in front of him:
“At this time, as a person living in the prison that is Gaza, my prime enemy is Hamas, not the occupation. We’re used to saying ‘occupation’ because we’ve been saying it for a long time, but the real occupation is Hamas. It is a barrier I need to remove from my life. If the Jews come and remove it, I will support them. The Jews didn’t kill my brother, Hamas did.”
“We want to live” protests against Hamas
In March 2019, young Gazans took to the streets and social media to protest against Hamas under the slogan “We want to live,” arguing that Hamas has strangled their economic and social prospects.
Many Palestinians expressed discontent that Hamas receives millions of dollars in aid from Qatar while the average Gazan lives in poverty. These protests were not tolerated — Hamas violently dispersed the demonstrators using live ammunition and batons.
Raya, a participant in the protests, recounted the brutal response:
“Three years ago, we protested as part of the ‘We Want to Live’ movement. Our slogan meant that we want a decent life, like any people. The people wanted their voices to be heard by the government. But Hamas responded with the opposite of what we’d hoped. We met arrest, hot pursuit, a hail of bullets — every kind of brutality…They came and raided our house and trashed it, as they did so viciously to many houses. Our crime was wanting to live. The accusation: rebelling against Hamas, serving a foreign agenda, being a ‘collaborator.’ It’s forbidden to speak freely in Gaza.”
Persecution of LGBTQ+ Palestinians
Hamas considers homosexuality a crime that is punishable by death. LGBTQ+ Palestinians have to live in secret, but this is getting harder and harder due to Hamas’ attempts to find them. Undercover Hamas operatives lure gay men with fake social media profiles and torture them when they are discovered.
Gazan resident Abdul spoke to i24 News about the torture gay men endure under Hamas’ rule:
“When I was 17 years old, Hamas caught me when I was having sex with my boyfriend. They imprisoned me for three days. They put me in a tiny room that was two-by-two meters. They wouldn’t let me sleep or go to the bathroom inside. There was no food. They would torture me so badly…”
Persecution of women in Gaza
Women in Gaza are considered second-class citizens and face widespread discrimination under Hamas law. They are forced to adhere to conservative dress codes, which are violently enforced by Hamas operatives.
Women in Gaza face physical and sexual abuse, as there are currently no laws in Gaza that prohibit violence against women. They also aren’t allowed on the bikes and scooters that people in the densely packed enclave use to get around.
Speaking to “Whispered in Gaza,” Gazan citizen Mariam recalled what life was like for women before Hamas took power:
“When I was younger, I was really good at dancing, singing and acting. I want to dance to this day. But after the [Hamas] takeover in 2007, I felt that it was all over. Threats began. They said, ‘Girls shouldn’t be singing. You need to leave that behind, go to the mosques, and read Qur’an.’ Fine, I get it — and we do learn Qur’an at home — but I wanted to develop my talent. Next, they issued a warning: ‘If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll go to prison. We’ll be watching you and monitoring your phone.’ Even the dream can’t go further than they allow.”
Who will rule Gaza after the war?
Although Israeli officials have yet to announce the country’s potential role in Gaza’s future, many people suspect that Israel will maintain a military presence in the Strip for years to come.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed that he has every intention of demilitarizing Gaza and that he is opposed to letting the Palestinian Authority regain control of the Strip, even if this is the preference of Israel’s strongest ally.
With Palestinians divided over who should be the governing body and no strong leadership, it is difficult to predict what lies ahead for Gazans.
Many young people in Gaza hope for a brighter future free of Hamas. “We want Gaza to be like Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, or Cairo. I don’t want there to be wars and rockets,” Ibrahim said in “Whispered in Gaza.”
“We and the Israelis are one people believing that no one — whether from Gaza, Palestine, or from Israel — deserves these conditions of fear and terror, and that all of us should live in peace,” he added.
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Love this guy. Posted previously.
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This is exactly what some, including Ron DeSantis, have predicted. All these young men invading our country can not be trusted to be peaceful new citizens. A terrorist attack within our borders, unfortunately, is quite likely.
No doubt these are for hunting season…hunting for what?
Florida Furniture Surprise Shipment
If you have doubts about Muslim migration, this may clear them up. Border guards found 52 tons of guns and ammunition in 14 Conex containers disguised as furniture. This "furniture" is addressed to Muslim immigrants who have come to America.
YAVEX USA IS A TURKISH ARMS MANUFACTURING COMPANY THAT IS LICENSED TO DO BUSINESS in Ft Myers, Florida
This should convince you that illegal IMMIGRATION and Border Crisis is nothing less than an ARMED INVASION. Do you ever wonder why all those young (military age) men without children or wives are taking on the task of traveling all those miles posing as refugees to cross into our country?
When we find out why they are here, it will be too late, and they are spread out all cross his country. President Biden will have more blood on his hands, long after he is out of office. Most of the dishonest mainstream media won't report this.
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Thanks Dr Spock and assorted progressives.
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I am not advocating this but this Op Ed is worth reading. The author is a strong advocate for LEGAL Immigration.
Not Democrat, not Republican, not Liberal, and not Conservative. Just facts by a good reporter
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WHAT IF THEY LEFT
The COST AT THE BOTTOM IS GIGANTIC!!!
By Tina Griego - a Free-Lance reporter for the Denver Post.
What if they left?
What if 20 million Illegal Aliens Vacated America? I, Tina Griego, journalist for the Denver Rocky Mountain News have written a column titled, "Mexican Visitors' Lament.”
I interviewed Mexican journalist Evangelina Hernandez while visiting Denver last week. Hernandez said, "Illegal aliens pay rent, buy groceries, buy clothes. What happens to your country's economy if 20 million people go away?”
Hmmm, I thought, what would happen?
So, I did my due diligence, buried my nose as a reporter into the FACTS I found below. It's a good question...it deserves an honest answer.
Over 80% of Americans demand secured borders. What would happen if all 20 million or more vacated America? This may surprise you!
In California, if 3.5 million illegal aliens moved back to Mexico, it would leave an extra $10.2 billion to spend on overloaded school systems, bankrupt hospitals and overrun prisons. It would leave highways cleaner, safer and less congested. Everyone could understand one another as English became the dominant language again.
It means 12,000 gang members would vanish out of Denver alone. Colorado would save more than $20 million in prison costs, and the terror that those 7,300 alien criminals set upon local citizens. Denver Officer Don Young and hundreds of Colorado victims would not have suffered death, accidents, rapes and other crimes by illegals.
Denver Public Schools would not suffer a 67% dropout/flunk rate because of thousands of illegal alien students speaking 41 different languages. Denver's 4% unemployment rate would vanish as our working poor would gain jobs at a living wage.
In Chicago, Illinois, 2.1 million illegals would free up hospitals, schools, prisons and highways for a safer, cleaner and more crime-free experience.
If 20 million illegal aliens returned 'home,' the U.S. economy would return to the Rule of Law. Employers would hire legal American citizens at a living wage.
Everyone would pay their fair share of taxes because they wouldn't be working off the books. That would result in an additional $401 billion in IRS income taxes collected annually, and an equal amount for local, state and city coffers.
No more confusion in American schools that now must contend with over 100 languages that degrade the educational system for American kids.
Our overcrowded schools would lose more than two million illegal alien kids at a cost of billions in ESL and free breakfasts and lunches.
We would lose 500,000 illegal criminal alien inmates at a cost of more than $1.6 billion annually. That includes 15,000 MS-13 gang members who distribute $130 billion in drugs annually and would vacate our country.
In cities like L.A., 20,000 members of the '18th Street Gang' would vanish from our nation. No more Mexican forgery gangs for ID theft from Americans! No more foreign rapists and child molesters!
America's economy is drained. Taxpayers are harmed. Employers get rich. Over $80 billion annually wouldn't return to the aliens' home countries by cash transfers. Illegal migrants earned half that money untaxed, which further drains America's economy which currently suffers a $30 trillion debt.
More than $30 TRILLION !!
At least 400,000 anchor babies would not be born in our country, costing us $109 billion per year per cycle. At least 86 hospitals in California, Georgia and Florida would still be operating instead of being bankrupt out of existence because illegals pay nothing via the EMTOLA Act.
Americans wouldn't suffer thousands of TB and hepatitis cases rampant in our country - brought in by illegals unscreened at our borders. Our cities would see 20 million less people driving, polluting and grid locking our cities' greenhouse gasses.
Over one million of Mexico's poorest citizens now live inside and along our border from Brownsville, Texas, to San Diego, California, in what the New York Times called, 'colonias' or new neighborhoods. Trouble is, those living areas resemble Bombay and Calcutta where grinding poverty, filth, diseases, drugs, crimes, no sanitation and worse. They live without sewage, clean water, streets, roads, electricity, or any kind of sanitation.
The New York Times reported them to be America's new ' Third World ' inside our own country. Within 20 years, at their current growth rate, they expect 20 million residents of those colonias. (I've seen them personally in Texas and Arizona; it's sickening beyond anything you can imagine.)
We already invite a million people into our country legally/annually, more than all other countries combined- with growing anarchy at our borders. It's time to stand up for our country, our culture, our civilization and our way of life. Interesting statistics below!
Here are 13 reasons illegal aliens should vacate America, and I hope they are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them:
1. $14 billion to $22 billion dollars are spent each year on welfare to illegal aliens (that's Billion with a 'B’)
2. $7.5 billion dollars are spent each year on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
3. $12 billion dollars are spent each year on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they still cannot speak a word of English. $27 billion dollars are spent each year for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
4. $3 Million Dollars 'PER DAY' is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. That's $1.2 Billion a year.
5. 28% percent of all federal prison inmates are illegal aliens.
6. $190 billion dollars are spent each year on illegal aliens for welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
7. $200 billion dollars per year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
8. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US.
9. During the year 2005, there were 8 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our southern border with as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from other terrorist countries. Over 10,000 of those were middle-eastern terrorists. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin, crack, guns, and marijuana crossed into the U.S. from the southern border.
10. The National Policy Institute, estimates that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion, or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.
11. In 2006, illegal aliens sent home $65 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin, to their families and friends.
12. The dark side of illegal immigration: Nearly one million sex crimes are committed by illegal immigrants in the United States!
Total cost - a whopping $538.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR !
And we don't need a wall?
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