A fresh national survey from Harris and Harvard University asked Americans about the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, which was precipitated by the terror organization's October 7th surprise attack. The unprovoked assault resulted in the slaughter of more than 1,200 civilians and the kidnapping of hundreds more. Literally the next day, before any meaningful response from the stunned Israelis began, a coalition of anti-Semites, Islamists, and hardcore leftists in the West started gathering for large hate-fueled rallies in support of Hamas. They've done so regularly ever since. Their lies and bigotries are bottomless. Their primary talking points over the last few months have involved denouncing Israel's so-called "genocide" in Gaza, while demanding a "ceasefire."
Given their obsession with the concept of a ceasefire, it's telling how many of them never acknowledge Hamas' violation of the ceasefire that existed prior to the October massacre, nor do they denounce Hamas' refusal to agree to reasonable ceasefire terms (and yes, under the circumstances, demanding that a terrorist organization release its innocent hostages and surrender are reasonable requirements in order to avoid a full-scale and deserved annihilation). They want Israel to cease to exist, "from the river to the sea," and for the openly genocidal terrorists to win. Full stop. It's not demagogic to call these people Hamas supporters. Quite a few of them chant Hamas slogans, fly Hamas flags, despise Hamas critics, cheer Hamas barbarity, and even tell pollsters that they support Hamas. In the poll referenced above, nearly one-in-five Americans responded that they side with Hamas over Israel. That's the alarming and sickening news. The more reassuring news is that those pro-terrorism zealots remain vastly outnumbered by civilized people in this country:
Americans strongly support Israel over Hamas & clearly aren’t buying the false “genocide” shrieking from people who support or sympathize with the *actually* genocidal anti-Semitic terrorists of Hamas. 🇺🇸🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/ETaFbpRKUZ
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 27, 2024
Eighty-two percent of respondents favor Israel over Hamas in this war, and more than two-thirds correctly believe the Israelis do their best to avoid civilian casualties -- which Israel does to an unprecedented extent. Those efforts are made infinitely and intentionally more difficult, of course, by Hamas' systemic tactic of embedding fighters and weapons within civilian areas, infrastructure and sites such as schools, hospitals, and even United Nations offices. It must be very frustrating for the Hamas crowd that after months of high-decibel "genocide" projection, they're still getting righteously crushed on this question. Truth demands that they be crushed in this propaganda effort:
‘The myth of the Gaza “genocide”.’ My column in this week’s @spectator https://t.co/jZdDj5JVdj
— Douglas Murray (@DouglasKMurray) February 22, 2024
By every measure, what is happening in Gaza is not genocide. More than that – it’s not even regionally remarkable. Hamas’s own figures – not to be relied upon – suggest that around 28,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October. Most of the international media likes to claim these people are all innocent civilians. In fact, many of the dead will have been killed by the quarter or so Hamas and Islamic Jihad rockets that fall short and land inside Gaza. Then there are the more than 9,000 Hamas terrorists who have been killed by the Israel Defence Forces. As Lord Roberts of Belgravia recently pointed out, that means there is fewer than a two to one ratio of civilians to terrorists killed: ‘An astonishingly low ratio for modern urban warfare where the terrorists routinely use civilians as human shields.’
Some additional findings from the aforementioned survey:
- 67 percent support a ceasefire only after Hamas is removed and remaining hostages are freed.
- 78 percent back removing Hamas from Gaza.
I'd love to hear "pro-Palestinian" activists try to explain why a ceasefire conditioned upon all the Israeli hostages being freed and Hamas surrendering (as was endorsed by the European Union) would be unacceptable. They want a ceasefire that harms Israel, not one that hurts Hamas. In many cases, it really is that simple. And evil. I'm sure many of them would bend over backward to justify rejecting such a deal, as some of them are self-proclaimed supporters of the terrorist organization. The Biden administration met with one of them this month. Another is a member of Congress from Michigan, who urged her followers to register protest votes against the president in the primary, effectively in solidarity with Hamas:
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Rashida Tlaib says she is “proud” to vote uncommitted in Michigan Democrat primary. pic.twitter.com/SgSzPQFU8h
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 27, 2024
Tlaib -- who's already been censured by the House for her anti-Semitic misinformation and smears -- refused to condemn Hamas' decapitation of Jewish infants and just voted against Congressional resolutions (a) barring any October 7th perpetrators from entering the United States, and (b) condemning Hamas' weaponized rape of Jewish women during the attack. She has a substantial constituency within her party's base, and has fundraised successfully off of her radicalism. I'll leave you with this piece discussing the deeply demented discourse on the Left around the suicide of an American service member, who set himself on fire while screaming 'Free Palestine' outside the Israeli embassy:
Hamas’s Death Cult Comes to America https://t.co/2Kkng9kddS
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) February 27, 2024
