It seems like much of the world is against us these days.
According to the latest Gallup poll of 1,016 American adults conducted in March, a majority disapprove of continuing the war with Hamas. Support for the war has fallen from 50% in November 2023 to 36% now, and the number of people opposed has increased from 45% in November 2023 to 55% now. Approximately 9% of respondents had no opinion on this matter.
On the other hand, a recent American Harvard-Harris poll of 2,000 registered voters was more reassuring. 79 percent of Americans support Israel over Hamas, and 20 percent support Hamas. But if these polls were conducted in many European countries, it is certain that support for Israel would be much lower.
The reality is that many people outside of Israel have lost sight of why we are fighting this war. To many, it seems punitive. For progressives, this is part of a continuing pattern of Jewish oppression of Palestinians and suppression of their rights.
Despite its distortions and falsehoods, the story of Palestine has captured the imagination of many people around the world. Hamas has also succeeded in increasing radicalization among a significant proportion of Muslims in Western countries.
Many of the world’s political leaders also believe that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a political struggle and, therefore, a conflict that can be resolved politically. As I argued in the article, jerusalem post and other publications have stated that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is primarily religious and has been since its inception. We now have a great mission to change world opinion about the justice of our cause, and the religious dimension of this struggle should be paramount in our discussions.
Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni fundamentalist and savior group with an apocalyptic vision of destroying the state of Israel, killing Jews through jihad, and replacing the Jewish state with a religious Islamic state. It’s exercise. Achieving this would demonstrate the superiority of Islam over Judaism and foreshadow the Day of Judgment and the End.
Furthermore, Yahya Sinwar, the current leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has promised that Hamas will never slow down in pursuing its objectives. Iran’s Shiite Twelver, an ally of Hamas, has a similar vision of destroying Israel and establishing a global caliphate before the impending apocalypse. This is also the objective of other Sunni fundamentalist groups such as ISIS. [Imamiyya or Twelver Shi’ism, the state religion in Iran – shared by 150 million Muslims worldwide – believes that there will be 12 imams who are spiritual successors of Mohammed and that the 12th imam will be al-Mahdi and appear at the End of Days. He is not mentioned in the Quran.]
An important question for us Israelis is how popular these religious beliefs are among the average Palestinian in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. Are they limited to Hamas leaders and those most involved with the organization, or do they enjoy wide support among the Palestinian public?
According to the latest poll by Palestine Policy Research Research (PSR) in March 2024, 70% of Palestinians are satisfied with the role of Hamas (75% in the West Bank and 62% in the Gaza Strip). In the West Bank, support for Hamas has fallen 10 points from 85% three months ago, but in Gaza the opposite is true. Satisfaction with Hamas increased by 10 points, from 52% to 62%.
Are people motivated by the state or by faith?
When asked about their preference for the political party that should rule the Gaza Strip after the war, an average of 59% chose Hamas (64% in the West Bank, 52% in Gaza; 1% chose IDF; just 7%). 64% of Palestinians hold Hamas responsible for their suffering, and 64% blame Israel.
Yet, despite all the numbers and graphs, PSR data is inadequate. Because it says nothing about the religious aspects of this struggle. All of the questions asked were of a political nature, which could lead to the impression that the war in Gaza is solely about the Palestinians’ desire for greater political freedom. Therefore, PSR analysts believe that the increase in Palestinian support for Hamas means that the people of Gaza are winning this war, and that the world has never supported their demand for a Palestinian state. I suspect that this is because they are paying more attention to the above.
What is urgently needed is polling data that allows us to distinguish between the Palestinian struggle for independence and freedom and the religious struggle between Islam and Judaism. Joe Biden and European and Saudi leaders may be right if only a small minority of Palestinians support Hamas’s religious aims.
Once Israel’s security is sufficiently guaranteed, an agreement to establish a Palestinian state will likely be considered in the long term (even though historically Israeli concessions have never led to peace).
On the other hand, if we could prove that Hamas’ stated religious objectives are supported by a significant proportion of Palestinians, this would be important information for us, as well as for Americans and Europeans. That means our support for a Palestinian state is suicidal. It also means that by supporting the Palestinian cause, many in Christendom are supporting the Islamic world in its efforts to undermine Judaism and its state.
As the only effective base of resistance to Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East, they are weakening key allies in the Western world in the fight against Iran, Hezbollah and other extremist groups. At the very least, such findings will help convince the world that Hamas needs to be completely expelled from Gaza.
The sample size for the latest PSR poll was 1,580 adults, 830 of whom were interviewed face-to-face in the West Bank and 750 in Gaza. This number of subjects may be sufficient for a preliminary test study, but not for a final study. This differs from the March survey in that many, if not most, of the questions asked are about beliefs, so ratings such as “strongly believe,” “moderately believe,” etc. Because you will need it.
Also, a sufficient number of subjects is required to create a conclusive statistical correlation. The results will not only be presented to the press around the world, but will also be published as academic works, so they need to be organized within an academic department with access to statistical services.
Many of the questions to be asked will be based on statements posed in Hamas’s 1988 Charter and its revised Principles and Policies in May 2017. We need to know what percentage of Palestinians in Gaza, Judea and Samaria believe they have no place in Gaza at all. Jewish state in the Middle East. What percentage of people support the idea that it is an Islamic obligation to kill Jews? What percentage of men are ready to support their views on jihad? And what percentage believe that the goal of Islam should be to establish a religious Islamic state in Palestine based on Sharia? What percentage is it?
Islam is very focused on the world to come, and additional questions include: What percentage of Palestinians believe that the Day of Judgment is imminent? Also, how many of you agree with the vision of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian Twelve, that a caliphate would eventually be established in the Middle East and eventually rule the world?
We are far behind in trying to influence world opinion regarding the justice of our cause. However, such findings could be the cornerstone of future information campaigns. It will also be an important source of information on how to proceed with negotiations with the Palestinians at a tactical level, rather than making assumptions based on preconceived political views.
Research on Palestinians that is as free from potential bias as possible would be very expensive. But it could be worth its weight in gold.
The author is the author of a newly published book, The struggle for utopia.History of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim messianism And other books. He can be reached at arnoldslyper@gmail.com.
