72% of Palestinians on the West Bank think Hamas’s decision to do what it did on October 7 “was the correct one”? Really?
This is a segment from The “Opinions, Opinions, Opinions!” Edition.
And now it’s time for our second discussion.
So Don, what do the polls say about what Palestinians in the territories of Gaza think of October 7th?
The survey research unit of the Ramallah-based Konrad Adenauer Foundation-supported Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research published a poll with these astonishing findings.
In Gaza, 57% of people said that the Hamas decision to launch its offensive against Israel on the 7th of October was a correct one, 37% said it was incorrect, 17% of Gazans said that Hamas committed war crimes, and 97% said that Israel did.
On the West Bank, 72% of people polled said that the Hamas decision to launch its offensive against Israel on the 7th of October was a correct one, 22% said it was incorrect, 5% said Hamas committed war crimes, 94% said Israel did.
38% of Gazans say they would like to see Hamas in control of Gaza after the war, and 23% say they’d like to see the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas leading them.
75% of residents of the West Bank say they’d like to see Hamas in charge of Gaza when the war ends, and only 11% say they’d like to see the PA in charge.
Among Gazans, 52% are satisfied with the performance of Hamas, 52% are satisfied with local Hamas leader Yachiyo Sinwar’s performance, and 43% were happy with Hamas president Ismail Haniyah, 21% were fully on Fatah and the PA, and 17% are pleased with Abbas.
On the West Bank, a whopping 85% are satisfied with the performance of Hamas, 81% with Sinwar, 57% with Haniyah, 23% with Fatah, and only 10% with the PA, and 7% with Abbas.
If two candidate elections were held today in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyah would decidedly beat Mahmoud Abbas, 71% to 24%.
In the West Bank, Haniyah would trounce Abbas, 82% to 10%, all of which raises many questions that in the end reduce to one, Allison, what the fuck?
Yeah, I mean man, it just seems like the Palestinians have an awful lot in common with Benjamin Netanyahu and Itamar Ben-Gvir, they all think that the Palestinian Authority is not a viable alternative to Hamas.
I think it’s fascinating that percentage-wise so many more people in the West Bank think that Hamas has been doing a nifty job versus the percentage in Gaza because they’re not actually suffering the consequences of what the Hamas did on October 7th.
But boy, the average Israeli in me is just like, “Well, you just shrugged.
” And it’s the usual, how can you make peace with these people?
How can they think that it’s okay?
How can they understand the high percentages hating on Israel and thinking that Israel is committing war crimes?
That half I can understand, but I’m thinking that Hamas is the one making the right moves right now, man, I don’t get it.
Maybe one of you guys do.
Well, the first question that I have about this is whether it tells us something or whether it tells us nothing.
In the third discussion we’re going to have where there was a somewhat parallel finding about Israeli attitudes towards Palestinian civilians and their deaths in this war, I’ll have the same question.
Last night I was talking with Susan and our girl and her boy, and he said, “Maybe all you learn from this poll is that people in a time of war have very extreme opinions and their extreme opinions are our side is being treated disgracefully or worse by the other side which is disgraceful and our side is the most right of the two sides.
” And that might be true, but I really don’t know.
However, it is really, really dismaying to me that 72% found it in them to tell pollsters that what happened on October 7th was a good thing.
72% of people in the West Bank told pollsters that that was a good thing instead of some other option which I guess maybe they weren’t given by the pollsters of saying, “We’re all in on the Palestinian side including Hamas’ side of this war, though we think that what happened on October 7th was a disgrace.
” Maybe there was no way to tell the pollsters that and maybe more people actually believe that.
I don’t know.
But it’s really depressing and, Alison, the most disturbing thing about it is it does make it really hard to argue against people who say, “Forget about peace.
Just forget about peace for a generation or two generations, maybe a hundred years.
” They’ll take a poll and find people who want peace on the other side, but for now we can’t do that.
It makes it really hard for me to figure out what to say to those people.
Well, look, even given that the positions are exacerbated, polarized in war and because so many people are getting killed, the people are angry and they’re enraged and I’m assuming they’re answering these questions in the middle of this, not at the very beginning.
But I think for those of us who do care about peace, it’s really important that we not look away from this poll.
This suggests that Palestinians hate our guts and they hate us sufficiently that they justify the atrocities committed by Hamas and praise them and would like Hamas to be in control of much more of Palestinian life than it is now.
That’s less true of Gazans.
Gazans who’ve been tyrannized by Hamas.
Who know what it is like to live under Hamas rule.
Under their rule, but also who are dying and whose homes and families are being destroyed because of Israel’s reaction to what Hamas did.
Their support there is much lower.
Thirty, 38 percent think Hamas should be in control after the war, which is half of what the Palestinians in the West Bank think.
So all of that, I think, is absolutely crucial.
And remember that.
When you say that we need to keep it in mind, then I agree.
But what does that mean?
Well, it means that there’s going to be an unbelievably large challenge to win over hearts and minds to the idea of some kind of peaceful coexistence after the atrocities they committed against us and what they, I’m sure, are seeing as atrocities we’re committing against them.
Hearts and minds on both sides?
On both sides, but certainly this poll on their side.
You know, and I think it’s.
Look, the things that give me hope in moments like this, which we could just so easily sink into despair and say, “It’s a lost cause.
The right wing is right.
Let’s just put up much more impenetrable walls all around Israel and never see these people again, let them rot and do everything we can to keep them as weak as possible.
” A lot of people are saying that, including formerly left-wing people.
Oh, no, no, for sure.
And a lot of, you know, left.
Most of those people it seemed were very leftist and very peace activist oriented.
So a lot of people in the community just lost close friends and family and are still dealing or still being traumatized.
So it’s.
That all makes sense.
But look, what gives me hope in these situations is I go back and I say, “Okay, Germany, World War II.
It would have been inconceivable during the war or during World War I for that matter, World War II because of the atrocities on a scale that had been unparalleled before that.
It would have been inconceivable that French, British, and Germans would be allies or that Americans and Germans would be allies.
It would have been inconceivable that Germany would be a little Jewish country’s most staunch supporter in the international arena besides the United States.
” It is possible for people to change.
It is possible that people change attitudes.
And having been involved in the ’90s when Oslo was going on, there was a battle going on for hearts and minds on the Palestinian side and on the Jewish side.
And a lot of people on the extremists on both sides worked very hard to undermine those efforts to win people over.
But most Israelis for a good 10 or 15 years were willing to take risks for peace, even risks of some more terrorist attacks, not for what just happened on October 7th.
Nobody’s going to take a risk that that’s going to happen again.
So it’s going to be, I don’t know, about healing or reorienting or re-reconceiving how we do this.
That’s going to have to take place.
We can’t go back to the old messages.
Like my heart is with Don, but my brain is with, you know, feeling very sort of discouraged and disparaged and like we’re fucked by the situation.
