President Biden’s assertion that Hamas lacks popularity among West Bank Palestinians contradicts numerous polls and stirs controversy.
By Bassam Tawil, Gatestone
Where does US President Joe Biden obtain his knowledge on Palestinians is a question that has to be asked, especially in light of his recent statement regarding the popularity of the Iran-backed terrorist group Hamas.
“If you notice, there is a growing dissatisfaction in the West Bank, from the Palestinians, about Hamas,” Biden said during a press conference. “Hamas is not popular now.”
Biden, whose approval ratings are plummeting, can only be jealous of Hamas’s increasing popularity among the Palestinians.
Biden’s bizarre statement, which goes against every public opinion survey released in the past few months, shows that either he is knowingly trying to deceive the American public about the genuine feelings of the Palestinians, or he is merely clueless. The first possibility appears to be more likely.
It seems that Biden does not want the American people to be aware that most Palestinians in the West Bank are enthusiastic supporters of Hamas, as that would discourage them from endorsing his idea of creating a Palestinian state there.
The broad support Hamas enjoys among the Palestinians, including those who live in the West Bank, means that a Palestinian state would be ruled by the same terrorists who masterminded and carried out the October 7 atrocities against Israelis.
Biden appears to be convinced that hiding the fact that most Palestinian people support Hamas from the American people will make it easier for him to promote the insane idea of pressuring Israel to accept a state that is controlled by Hamas and other Iran proxies, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.
Hamas is not only deeply committed to refusing Israel’s right to exist, it has also openly announced that it will use a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem as a springboard to eliminate Israel and murder as many Jews as possible. Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad has threatened that his group will carry out more October 7-style attacks on Israel:
“The Al-Aqsa Flood [the name Hamas gave to the October 7 attack] is just the first time, and there will be a second, third, and fourth…. Israel is a country that has no place on our land. We must remove that country because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation, and must be finished. We are not ashamed to say this, with full force.”
Biden’s claim that Hamas is “not popular” among the Palestinians in the West Bank actually contradicts analysis by US intelligence agencies showing that Hamas’s popularity has significantly grown after the terrorist group’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the murder of 1,200 Israelis and the wounding of thousands of others. In addition, hundreds of Israelis were raped, tortured, burned alive and kidnapped to the Gaza Strip by the Hamas terrorists and thousands of “ordinary” Palestinians who rushed into Israel to participate in the atrocities.
Now, especially in the West Bank, Hamas is increasingly “viewed as the one group actually doing something about Israeli occupation,” said Jonathan Panikoff, a former US intelligence official specializing in the Middle East.
In December 2023, CNN reported:
“A flurry of new analysis by US intelligence agencies has warned that Hamas’ credibility and influence has grown dramatically in the two months since the October 7 terror attack…
“Before October 7, a senior [Biden] administration official said, ‘Hamas [was] not a wildly popular organization. Today it’s more popular.'”
A poll conducted by the Arab World for Research & Development (AWRAD) between October 31 and November 7, 2023 found that strong support for the Hamas-led attack on Israel was much higher among Palestinians in the West Bank at 68%, compared to the Gaza Strip at 47%.
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) has also conducted a number of polls indicating strong support for Hamas among the Palestinians, particularly those residing in the West Bank.
The latest poll, released on July 10, 2024, showed that since the October 7 attack, satisfaction among the Palestinians in the West Bank with the “performance” of Hamas murderers and rapists has risen to 82%.
Hamas arch-terrorist Yahya Sinwar, one of the masterminds of the October 7 massacres, enjoys the support of 76% of the Palestinians in the West Bank compared to 50% in the Gaza Strip, where he lives, according to the PSR poll.
When asked who the public would prefer to control the Gaza Strip after the current war, 71% of Palestinians in the West Bank chose Hamas, compared to 46% in the Gaza Strip.
In March 2024, PSR published the findings of another poll that showed that a majority of Palestinians in the West Bank (64%) support Hamas and would like to see the terrorist group continue ruling the Gaza Strip after the war. The poll also found that 75% of Palestinians in the West Bank are satisfied with the performance of Hamas.
Biden needs to be reminded that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has long refused to hold general elections for the wholly justified fear that Hamas would win in a landslide.
In 2021, Abbas called off planned elections for the presidency and parliament after reaching the conclusion that his fractured and corruption-riddled Fatah faction would be defeated by Hamas.
The Biden administration also needs to be reminded of the countless demonstrations that have taken place in the West Bank over the past few years in support of Hamas and its leaders.
Two days after the October 7 massacres, hundreds of Palestinians in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians in the West Bank, took to the streets to chant slogans in support of another Hamas arch-terrorist, Mohammed Deif.
Further evidence that Hamas has always been popular among the Palestinians in the West Bank: the terrorist group’s victory in elections for student councils at major universities there.
In 2022, Hamas-affiliated students won the vote at Birzeit University.
A year later, Hamas supporters won a majority of votes in the elections at An-Najah University, the largest academic institution in the West Bank.
Every Palestinian child knows that Hamas would easily win if elections were held today for the Palestinian presidency and parliament.
The reason Hamas has such high popularity among Palestinians is because it seeks to destroy Israel though jihad (holy war).
Hamas enjoys immense popularity among the Palestinians because it has been waging terrorist attacks against Israel and Jews since its founding more than 35 years ago.
With respect, President Biden, it was after its members murdered, sexually assaulted, tortured, and abducted hundreds of Israelis on October 7, that Hamas became even more popular among the Palestinians.
It is time for Biden and his administration to come clean with the American people about the Palestinians: the majority of them favor destroying Israel and murdering Jews.
It is unfortunately Biden’s insistence on falsehoods – that the Afghanistan withdrawal was an “extraordinary success”; that he inherited an inflation rate of 9% when in fact it was 1.4%; that the China spy balloon was “not a major security breach”; that his son Beau “died in Iraq” when in fact he died of brain cancer “surrounded by his extended family”; that his uncle was “eaten by cannibals”; and now, that Hamas is “not popular” — that so often causes him to come across as disconnected from reality.