A poll taken last month, after the October 7 attack of Israel by Hamas, by Arab World for Research & Development, produced the following heatmap of approval among Palestinians:
Let me translate that for you. The highest approval,89% was for the military arm of Hamas with other very violent Islamist groups following behind.
That’s not just a majority or a supermajority but the overwhelming preponderance of Palestinians supporting Hamas.
During a war.
Steve
A war has been going on for almost all of living memory between the Israelis and Palestinians—74 years. That war has had occasional ceasefires, sometimes long ones, but it has continued.
In other words you’re making a distinction without a difference. Nearly 90% of Palestinians support Hamas’s military wing. That’s about as close to unanimity as you can get.
It’s like saying we weren’t fighting the Germans we were fighting the Nazis during World War II. That’s just Cold War era propaganda. The Germans supported Hitler as did most of the Dutch and French. There were 25,000 Dutch members of the Waffen-SS, the largest single group. That’s from a country of 9 million people. The storied French Resistance was a couple of hundred French communists—certainly not massive resistance.
You should let the Israelis know that. They had the Hamas war plans, knew it was a big anniversary date, were giving money to Hamas and pulled their troops away from Gaza. Not the kind of stuff you expect when at war. At any rate, surveys before this round showed lower support for Hamas and higher support for PLA.
Steve
while other surveys from last spring showed high levels of support for Hamas.
So their popularity goes up and down. I would bet that correlates with when Israel is dropping bombs. Note that George Bush was very popular for a while after we got “bombed”.
Steve
I think you and I are imagining different stories. Please correct me if I’m wrong but the story you seem to see unfolding is one of Palestinian reaction to Israeli attacks.
My story would be somewhat different. The responses of both Palestinians and Israelis over the last 75 years has been to become more radicalized. It’s a sad situation but it’s a sad situation in which not only do we have no stake, any involvement in it on our part leaves us worse off than we were before without reducing the mutual hostilities
BTW “Israel is dropping bombs” is a half truth. Israel would stop dropping bombs if Hamas released its hostages and surrendered its weapons. The implication of your formulation is that if only Israel were to stop dropping bombs Hamas’s popularity would decline and all would be well.