The day will come when Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, will pay dearly for his tragic mistakes in order to return to power.
He thus downplayed Hamas’s undying hatred of Israel and believed that by “pandering” to it, he would further his plans for the West Bank and the undermining of the corrupt regime of Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas.
In this context, having started peace negotiations with Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with its new leadership, the Israeli Prime Minister felt that the Palestinian problem was being downplayed and, despite some reports presented to him by his intelligence services, ignored them. But what did these reports say? Quite simply, they gave particular weight to a poll by the Arab Barometer research network, in which researchers highlighted the deep dissatisfaction spreading among the Gazan population with the actions of Hamas and its days in this densely populated area where violence is the order of the day.
The results of this study, recently released in a newsletter from the US Council on Foreign Relations, show that before October 7, 2023, the vast majority of Gazans were not so much supportive of Hamas as they were outraged by the mismanagement of an armed mafia group that openly engaged in lawlessness and criminal activities. In addition, the majority of Gazans did not share the Hamas ideology, whose goal is the destruction of the Israeli state. Most survey respondents favored a two-state solution, in which an independent Palestine and Israel would exist side by side.
It should also be noted that the above-mentioned survey in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was conducted in collaboration with the Palestine Policy and Research Center, with support from the US National Endowment for Democracy.
We also note that “Arab Barometer”, since 2006, has been conducting large public opinion surveys in 16 countries of the Middle East and Africa, which are considered very authoritative.
All surveys are designed to be nationally representative, with most (including the most recent survey in the West Bank and Gaza Strip) conducted through face-to-face interviews in the respondents’ place of residence and the collected data made public. In each country, surveys aim to measure respondents’ attitudes and values on a range of economic, political and international issues.
The latest interviews were conducted between September 28 and October 8, with 790 respondents in the West Bank and 399 in the Gaza Strip (Gaza interviews completed October 6). The survey results showed that Gazans have very little trust in the leadership of their Hamas-led government, with 44% having no trust at all.
When interviewees were asked how they would vote if presidential elections were held in Gaza, only 24% said they would vote for a Hamas candidate. It was also clear from the responses that Gazans want political change, and many of the young people did not rule out making assertive demands. At the same time, the majority of respondents did not hide their disgust at the atrocities of the nouveau riche – members of the Islamic terrorist organization, for whom the mention of the word “democracy” caused extreme laughter.
These trends, combined with the peaceful developments in the Greater Middle East, have now clearly pushed Hamas to implement a previously developed plan aimed not only at destabilizing the situation in the region as a whole, but also at instilling hatred in the Muslim world towards the West.
As Lebanese professor of international relations Ghassan Salame notes, “…Hamas was convinced that the West was in decline, and therefore saw this as an opportune time to stir up the Muslim world against it…“And in this regard, as the French professor Gilles Kepbel argues, Europe, in the center of which there are 40 million Muslims (France, Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, the Netherlands), today represents a brilliant target… Because if the Israeli government does not show restraint in the ground attack on Gaza, then Netanyahu will fall into a well-planned trap that affects not only Israel, but the entire Western world and its democratic civilization.
The intention of Hamas and its supporting Iran, as well as Turkey and Qatar, is obvious to raise 2 billion Muslims living in 57 countries of the world to a “holy war” “Jihad”, sending them against a country with an area of 20,000 square kilometers with 10 million inhabitants, so that through this uprising undermine Western cohesion. In the interests, of course, of China, Russia and other authoritarian regimes.
About the author. Athanasios Papandropoulos – Honorary President of the Association of European Journalists and Administrative President of its Greek section, member of the board of the Association of Editors of the European Parliament, for six years served as President of the Association of Magazine and Electronic Press Journalists.
The author’s opinion may not coincide with the opinion of the editors.
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